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Immaculate Conception School’s Eagle Safety Patrol will be honored by the New York Yankees at Game 3 of the American League Championship Series against the Houston Astros Monday night.
The eighth-grade students from the school located on 151st Street in the Bronx will be seated in the Judge’s Chambers, named for the Yankees star outfielder Aaron Judge, located in section 104 of the right-field stands.
“We are grateful to the Yankees. To recognize our students is a wonderful thing for them to do for our kids,” Sister Patrice Owens, S.C.C., the school principal, told CNY.
The Eagle Safety Patrol, comprised of 21 students, is being honored for their leadership in the school and community. In recent months, the group has raised money for relief efforts in Puerto Rico, Texas, Florida and Mexico. Puerto Rico, Texas and Florida suffered massive damage from hurricanes, and the people of Mexico are recovering from devastating earthquakes. The eighth-graders also tutor students after school, conduct a recycling project to generate resources for the homeless and volunteer in a Bronx-based community garden.
“They do a lot of service willingly,” Sister Patrice said. “One of our core values is service. We try to help the kids by providing opportunities to do service in the school and in the community. We make them aware of the opportunities and they are willing to to do it.”
The Yankees also announced the Bronx-based Highbridge Voices will sing the National Anthem before Game 4 and will sit in the Judge’s Chambers for Tuesday’s game. Msgr. Donald Sakano, pastor at the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, serves as president of the board for the Highbridge Voices and was a founder of the Highbridge Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit that owns and manages some 50 buildings with more than 2,100 households.
Highbridge Voices held its first rehearsal in 1998 and became an independent nonprofit organization in 2001. It now operates on an annual budget near $1 million and serves some 200 students, ages 9 to 18, between the academic year and summer programs.
Highbridge Voices has a 100 percent high school graduation rate and an 80 percent college enrollment rate.
