In order to celebrate Veterans Day, students at DePaolo Middle School heard from one of the teachers who served in Iraq with the army. Joel-Patrick Leger, an eighth-grade U.S. history teacher at DePaolo who flew transport missions as a Black Hawk crew chief, wore his uniform and displayed items used during his time in Iraq.

DePaolo Middle School students in the band, chorus and orchestra traveled across the street to the Calendar House last week to perform in their annual Holiday concert. Students from DePaolo perform a couple times each year and look forward to their next performance this spring.

DePaolo Middle School students collected close to 2,000 items during this year’s National Junior Honor Society Toiletry Drive. Students in the NJHS at DePaolo worked with the Honor Society students from Kennedy Middle School and Southington High School to make over 200 toiletry bags. The bags will be distributed to people in the Southington community.

DePaolo Middle School Student Council and Leadership students are collecting winter clothes for Southington residents. On Nov. 24, the first collection of over a hundred coats plus other winter clothes was picked up by Southington Community Services. The DePaolo Middle School Clothing Drive will continue until Thursday, Dec. 18. Pictured with some of the items are, from left to right, Austin Coley, Kayla Viviano, and Hannah Chamis.

On Oct. 7, Thula Sizwe visited DePaolo Middle School for a cultural arts program for the sixth-grade students. Thula Sizwe consists of 11 men from South Africa who, through song and dance, share the culture of the African Zulu tribe. After the assembly, the performers joined the sixth-graders at lunch in the cafeteria. In addition, they will be returning to DePaolo on Wednesday, Oct. 15 to visit the grade 7 social studies classes to speak about Africa, which is part of the curriculum.

The DePaolo Middle School National Junior Honor Society held a pasta food drive during the school’s open house Sept. 16. More than 400 items — 400 pounds of food — were collected and given to Bread for Life. Pictured, from left to right, are Corinne Horanzy, Molly Potter, Joanna Gorski, Morgan Vasile, Julia Premus, Hannah Chamis and Sarah Hurley.