S-Section Kids Set to Take on Kindergarten

Friends are made, snacks shared and a banner is made for a tradition more than a decade old for this Stony Brook neighborhood that gathers the latest kindergarten class for an old fashioned play date in the park to celebrate their entrance into Nassakeag Elementary School.

Each year, parents in the S-Section of Stony Brook, along with the neighborhood's organization, the Circle of Friends, drums up a theme for that year and creates a banner that is hung on the fence surrounding the interior park for display along with all the prior year's banners, on the first day of school. 

This year's theme is "Reach for the Stars".

"The kids get excited to see the banners each year," said Christine Sammon, who along with some friends, set up this year's display.

For moms who are new to the tradition, it is a way for them and their kids to make friends and see a familiar face at the bus stop.

Jennifer Jango, who helped organize the event, will have her first child, daughter Jillian, enter kindergarten this year.

"It is exciting, but also petrifying," she said.