Earlier this spring, students at Helen B. Duffield Elementary School celebrated “Star Day,” an idea proposed by motivated fifth grader Morgan Cilibrasi, who wrote a letter to the principal after she saw a post about the holiday on social media. The goal of the day was to reduce pollution in order to better see the stars, which the school community worked toward by keeping the lights off all day, using only natural light and flashlights and dressing up in neon attire adorned with glowsticks. Students also created projects that explored other ways to help the planet and Cilibrasi and her family created Star Day posters to hang around the school in promotion of the event.

Of Star Day, principal Lisa Farrell said, “we may have worked in the dark, but we were shining brightly!” Connetquot Central School District commends Cilibrasi for her leadership in suggesting and planning this wonderful schoolwide event and would love to see it continued in future years.