Last Fun Friday for the Summer Session! For some the last Fun Friday of PTW, or is it?

We concluded our Fun Friday sessions with a nice relaxing day. This Fun Friday consisted of us gathering at IHOP in Hicksville for a delicious breakfast and some nice socializing amongst this awesome group of PTW students and staff. From there we went to the movie theater at the Broadway Mall. Most of our group watched Haunted Mansion while a couple others watched Meg 2! It was a nice mellow way to end our summer Friday get togethers. I hope you all enjoyed the Friday fun activities as much as I enjoyed planning them out for you all. See you at the carnival Friday Aug 24th!
-Thomas  

The Grand Opening of  P izza   T his W ay was a Huge Success!!!!

by Thomas 

On Friday August 4th the first year students of PTW orchestrated a fantastic grand opening of a restaurant called Pizza This Way. The event was to honor the second year students of PTW and to celebrate this group for accomplishing their upcoming graduation taking place this September. Students from the first year have been working throughout the past two weeks to formulate menu ideas, graphic design for logos and the print design of the menu, marketing, and creating fun commercials, researching what tasks particular job positions carry out in a restaurant business and watching food and kitchen safety videos to learn safeguards of this setting. Well game time arrived today and we were ready. Students met Ms Alyssa of Mimi’s Kitchen of NY who led the management of our kitchen which is located at the Brookville Church. We used the kitchen and community room for this “pop up restaurant” thanks to Reverend Vicky and Linda who welcomed us with open arms and were so wonderful to us all. Reverend Vicky even stopped to meet and say hi to everyone! We didn’t let her leave for the day without her grabbing a slice of pizza! I heard students and staff complimenting Reverend Vicky on her beautiful building and church. I will let the photos do the talking for this event which was an absolute smash. It unfolded exactly how I dreamt it up which consisted of many smiles, dancing, and a collaborative effort from everyone carrying out different important roles that made it such a smooth well organized production. Of course the DSPs such as Martha, Alex, Susan, Drew, Alyssa(yes she is a dsp as well), all gave great support to assist our students. Kitchen staff Mary, Sam, Victoria, Robbie were out of this world with their food prep skills! Quinn and Darren were waiting tables taking orders and delivering the delicious food prepared by our chefs. That pizza was hot and tasty! The house salad was prepared beautifully as well. Cara our hostess and head manager was doing everything she needed to do to make our guests feel comfortable. Cara could be seen pouring drinks for everyone and seating people as well giving out the beautiful menus that TJ created in Canva. Mc Tori and Dj Sarah were rocking the party entertaining the customers. After showing Ben’s commercial on the big screen. I handed out trophy awards to all those that played a role in this overall incredible event. Lastly, I announced all of our proud graduates and had them come up to the front to receive applauds from the crowd!

Congrats to the PTW class of 2023, I hope you enjoyed your pizza and time today at our restaurant! It was a fun way to honor your accomplishments and a thrill to see you so excited interacting with each other and the first year students who gave it there all to show you a nice time with special treatment. You all deserve it!

Thomas

Ps Thank you Molly and Glen for your help as well. One more fun Friday to go, whew!  🙂

Another "Strike" to add to Our Fun Friday Experiences for the Summer!

With the summer heat pouncing down upon us the PTW crew had to think quick on our feet this past mid week and switched up our planned Fun Friday mini golf and picnic at Eisenhower park to an indoor activity. On Wednesday the first year students were up for the challenge and brainstormed some ideas for an alternate activity. The idea of bowling came up and Ms Sue was quickly on the phone using her connections at the Centereach Lanes to get us in. And that she did.  We were granted a ton of free arcade cards by the wonderful manager Steven, where our group was allowed to play games and win prizes!!! We bowled two games together. You could hear cheering and laughing the whole time, friends dancing in the lanes, giving high fives. Another fun Friday, thanks again Susan for helping us get it together so quickly. See the photos!!!

Thomas

Broadway Mall- IKEA & Round One Arcade

PTW students travelled to IKEA located within the Broadway Mall and carried out a scavenger hunt to raise awareness on their potential life skill needs with regards to furnishing and supplying an apartment with some necessary items. After the scavenger hunt activity we all had lunch at the IKEA cafe. To cap the day we went to Round One Arcade for some additional fun!

Check the pics, the photos say it all.  -TC

Fun Friday at The Puzzle Break Escape Room in Syosset 6/30/23

It was another fun Friday and this particular one concluded our Summer Session 1 program at PTW. Together we took on the Puzzle Break Escape Room in Syosset! Two groups were divided to conquer the themed rooms. Captain Samantha led her team to attempt to free themselves from Escape the Midnight Carnival while Captain Brian Foley showed his bravery and leadership navigating his crew through Escape the Lost Temple. I was fortunate to see Brian’s team in action and let me you, I was seriously impressed by all involved. I can name the whole team that did great but right now special mention to Tori, Tj, Ben B, Victor, and Brian who were quick on their feet and used their fierce intellect to solve the puzzles! It was amazing to watch this team work together. You could hear the chatter with Ben B thinking out loud figuring out these challenging puzzles. Group leader Captain Brian fist-pounded teammates to tell them they were doing a good job, he jotted down important codes, and used his math skills at times to further his team and unlock pieces of the puzzle. On one occasion with time ticking down Brian had to use brute force in jarring a wooden piece of a puzzle from slots in a table that became wedged in tightly. It was intense but that’s how Brian was leading this team that were full of talent, great teamwork, and intelligence! Quinn, Ben Z, Robbie, and Laryssa were equally as important in giving off a great positive, spirit throughout the entire challenge. Staff Sierra apparently is no stranger to escape rooms and showed skills in helping this team and group out of the room or shall I say, the temple of doom! The team got out with 6 minutes to go. As we emptied into the lobby in celebration the thought came over me that our comrades and classmates were still locked in the other room. Would they get out in time? After a couple of minutes I heard a loud cheer from the other room and then the sound of a door popping open. Captain Sam’s team escaped and out poured Brad, Tommy, Victoria, Cara, Andrew, Nick, Sarah, Anna, and Darren from the room with all smiles, feeling victorious. They were free and out of their carnival room. Pizza, games, and music followed in the side room. Skipbo, Old Maid, UNO, Jenga, Connect 4, were being played. Good times everyone. And not to forget, great job wearing your tie dye t shirts that we made from last Friday.(Check out them threads in the picture slideshow!) Thanks to Alyssa for again steering us to another cool Fun Friday activity, and Martha for leading the tie dye mission last week. Lisbeth, as always, was a big help in making the t shirts that day. Thanks to staff for always pitching in and making our Fridays so much fun. Collaborative efforts from an awesome group of students and staff.
Go PTW!

-Thomas 

The second group who was led by captain Samantha were locked in the carnival. This wasn't an ordinary carnival, it was a carnival in which if you couldn't escape in time the group would turn into a bunch of bugs.  Our group needed to find clues and solves different puzzles in order to get out. The group had a lot of smart members starting with Kara, where she was able to crack the first 2 puzzles. Andrew was very good with solving the numbers part of it. we all had a  very fun time trying to escape. We made it out in 4:30. We ended the day with eating pizza and playing board games. It was a very exciting trip

-Bradley Gefter

Class of 2023

Tie Dye T shirt making, Indoor Fun, Pizza Party!

6/23/23

The Gamers Club- 6/16/23

6/9/23 A fascinating Fun Friday at the Cradle of Aviation for the PTW crew!

Nassau County Museum of Art 6/2/23

Air show at Jones Beach 5/26/23