Each student in Holy Cross School, Rumson, had the pleasure of welcoming a grandparent or other special guest to join them at school for a day. Some children were lucky enough to have four grandparents visit their school.

The recent annual event began with Mass celebrated by Father Michael Manning, pastor of Holy Cross Parish and then followed by a reception hosted by the PTA. The grandparents heard an opening address by principal Dr. Mark De Mareo and class parents gave the guests personalized maps directing them to their students’ classrooms.

As the grandparents made their way around the school, they marveled at the artwork that decorated the hallways and classrooms. One of the most memorable pieces included a first grader’s cut-out likenesses of their grandparents, complete with glasses, golf clubs, shopping bags and other accessories to match their loved ones’ interests and images. Each homeroom had an activity planned so that the students and their guests could spend quality time together.

In Nicole Ariemma’s and Chris Miller’s fourth grade homerooms, children and grandparents decorated picture frames while class parents took and printed photos of the pairs to display in the frames.  In the homerooms of math teachers  Marcie Forsyth and Kathy Chadwick, they played interactive math games together. And Maryjane Gallo, language arts teacher, led the grandparent-student teams in composing poems about the grandparents on the students’ Chrome Books.

After a noon dismissal, students were eager to take their grand guests out to lunch.