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126spotlightnj2_2025-12-06-09-26-03

Pictures from Piscataway Buddy ball. Tell us what we're looking at. So in the picture is, uh, our bucket stacking that our kids love to do, especially our younger younger grades. Um, with that they stack the buckets up to see how high they can make it. Sometimes they make castles, sometimes we get some of our families to help out, some of our parents that are just looking by, and they're either 5, 10, or taller and can help stack those buckets a little higher. So that's just one of the many fun activities. Uh, that the kids really participate in and really enjoy along with the help and support from their buddies. Your kids, were they in the pictures? Some of them were, yes, um, two of my kids are twins, Mia and Luke's Dio. Hi, Daddy loves you. Um, they were, they come every Monday to Buddy ball to help and support the program. Oh, that's so cute. Tell us about the activities that the kids are involved in along with the stacking. So most common we do, we'll teach the kids how to throw a ball like the yarn balls. We teach them how to kick like soccer balls or softer balls um and to catch them, which are really hard for some of our students. Um, another big hit for the kids are scooters, which is um scooters we do the adaptive bikes. It helps build their strength and their core. And for some of our older athletes we do more cooperative games so we play kickball with them kickball is a big hit, uh, relay races and it's fun because engaging that social piece we have them high five each other taking turns, so we work on a lot of things. Yeah, my son really loves on Mondays. Oh, I wonder what we're what we're gonna play today in buball so he looks forward to the activities. Is this like for the parents? Do you all stay there and watch your kids in action? Yes, I stay and watch. And do you all compare nodes? You got a lot of information from other parents. You learn a lot. Yes. How long has your child been involved with this? He's been there around 3 years, yeah, 34 years, and he loves going, and I guess all the kids do. So as soon as they get to the gym, what do you have them do? So for our 6 o'clock classes in our younger group this is pre-K to 5th grade, um, they come in, we actually put the gym divider up and we have two different activities. So about halfway through we we, we get them going right away halfway through, we, we, um, uh, divide them up again and they do the other activity. So whatever activity they started with, they do the second activity and vice versa with the other group. Then the 7 p.m. class we have them walk. This is our older group, uh, middle school age and older. Um, and then they walk in a circle and they just socialize and it's for me and for my coaches here it's the most beautiful thing to see as well as for the parents, um, and then we play like volleyball, uh, we're actually gonna play volleyball next week. We're gonna have a high school girls volleyball team come and play with our 7 o'clock class with our older kids and again socialization. They're always being physically active, but for me, especially the last couple of years is seeing that socialization with our older students so very great to see.

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126spotlightnj3_2025-12-06-12-19-05

We are all sitting here talking about the Piscataway Buddyball program. It's a year-round athletic league. We have Vincenzo Steio coach Shannon Lauder. Coach Dana Pepe is a coach as well. Sandra Purmal is a parent of an athlete. Let's talk about the goals of this program as we take a look at your fantastic YouTube video. So I think the goals of the program is first to create an inclusive environment, uh, for all my athletes regardless of their abilities um can participate each week. Uh, the second goal is, is I want them to have fun, have fun, enjoy themselves, um, not just for the athletes but with the volunteers as well, and I would say another goal would be, I would say to. Ensure that my volunteers, which they already do, are having a positive report on all the athletes each and every week so they feel valued. Our athletes they're heard and they feel respected as well. How do you incorporate the student and teacher volunteers? You two know that all too well. So teacher wise, um, we divide up the students that volunteer we make sure that the volunteers understand the levels of the students that participate. Uh, we try and pair them up so they're a good batch together. um, teacher wise we facilitate, make sure that, um, the students, the student volunteers are really modeling what they're supposed to be doing, praising the students, um, while we just stand back and sometimes facilitate small groups and make sure that they're getting that positive feedback. Let me see if I got this straight, so you want the students to inspire and motivate each other. I love that. How do they feel about that? A lot of the um student volunteers like that you know they they learn that empathy and that leadership role um where we kind of like step back and allow it to happen and we see a lot of growth with the student volunteers too over the course of the season which is huge because naturally they may be a little hesitant when they first come. And by the end of the season they jump right in if there's an athlete that they notice is not playing with someone um they will go right over and engage with them it's it's really it's beautiful and it's rewarding for us to be able to then step back and kind of let the students take control and work with the other kids and my son loves meeting the new volunteers he really does.

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127spotlightnj4_2025-12-07-11-37-58

Have you ever heard of the Piscataway buddy ball program? Yes, this year-round athletic league takes place at Eisenhower Elementary School. Here in studio we have Vincenzo Steio coach Shannon Lauder, coach Dana Pepe, coach. Sandra Purmal is a parent. Let's talk about the funding because it takes money to operate something like this. Where do you all get that? Um, so a lot of the equipment that we use in the sessions every week actually comes from the school. We use a lot of the gym equipment, uh, but over the years, especially in more recent years, we've been lucky enough to get some donations from Pescataway Elks Club, uh, Pescataway Knights of Columbus as well, and even the PTEA, um, so they've been able to help out and with that money we're able to put it towards the program. Um, but we do, we really do use a lot of the equipment that's just available right in the gym, so the school is very supportive. I love that and the community too. Very much so, yes, uh, the community, we've had parents, uh, give donations, um, we've had parents bring snacks in. We've had a trick or treat event this year that we've done the last couple years where all our athletes, um, come in their costumes, and, uh, we had a lot of Toy Story costumes this year, for example, uh, and, um, it's just an awesome event, but we can't make those things happen without the support of, um, the, the programs and associations that, uh, Shannon talks to, yeah, and the parents too. Sandra, why is it so important for you all to be a part of this and get involved? Well for me is just to see my son do different activities and when you're involved it's it's better for the child. So what changes have you all seen in children with this program from start? Do I say finished? Do they ever really finish with it? I will say a lot of the athletes follow the program for years which uh Vincenzo can speak to because he's really been with this since the beginning um but even just internally they they look forward to it every week we've had parents even tell us that the kids get devastated if they miss a week. Oh yes, it's not a good night if they miss buddy ball. Um, so it's great because it's just they look forward to it every week, but seeing them over the years and just how they've grown and still coming back to Buddy Ball every week, it's amazing. This must be a full circle thing for you and fill your heart with joy to see all this happening in front of you. It's amazing because the first ever session I had it was 3 students. It was 22 special needs athletes and a volunteer and then years later we have. 50 to 60 kids that come um athlete wise and I have about 30, about 30 to 35 volunteers that sign up. They don't come each week, but 30 to 35 volunteers that that are part of the program. Plus I have in recent years I've had amazing support right here, um, with Dana with Shannon, other teachers, other power professionals in our district that wanna just get involved and help out. So it means the world to me because it's the backbone of our program is the volunteer support and also our awesome parents as well that keep our kids coming every week.

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127spotlightnj5_2025-12-07-11-39-19

Ready? 123. You know The kids with Piscataway, Buddy Ball and Eisenhower Elementary School having a great time. I have 3 coaches and a parent here in studio to tell me all about this and your goals for this program. Uh, continue to grow, continue to grow in terms of enrollment, um, continue to make a difference in all of our athletes, our volunteers. We have volunteers that come from a high school, our local high school, the Scataway High School, that will become teachers because of this program that that are that are inspired by that, um, just to keep getting, um, our program out there for community if they wanna get involved. They want to support, support, help us, um, and also for other towns to wanna do a program like this because every town has special needs population that could definitely benefit from a program like this and hopefully seeing that Piscataway's doing this other towns can take part as well. Wow, what would you all like to see happen with this program? How many years have you been involved with it? Um, it's been 2 or 3 years now, about 3 years for me. I would say just continuing to see it grow, uh, just in the time that I've started volunteering and working with the program, I have seen how much it expanded, um, even parent involvement all the way around it's, it's just been beautiful to see, um, and just echoing, um. What Vincenzo said in terms of just getting the word out there more uh because I really do feel like so many athletes and students across the state could really benefit from this and just having more opportunities available outside of the walls of the classroom and the school in the typical school day and giving them more opportunities what has it done for you personally? Because I see it in your smile. I absolutely love going on Monday nights. You get to see former students um that I've personally had over the years. You get to see how you how the students react with you and you can bring the parents in and have them work with you so they're able to harry back over in their own household. When you say work with the parents, what do you do to interact? So we if we're doing an activity we may say like we're doing this for this reason and how our words used and how we maybe will manipulate their fingers so if they're stacking things the parents can help you or have them help their own child, but even just the words that you use in the body language that you give off, it really helps.

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127SPOTLIGHTNJ6_2025-12-07-12-36-42

You can see by this logo we've been putting the emphasis on the Piscataway Buddyball program at Eisenhower Elementary School. Vincenzo, Shannon, Dana, and Sandra are all here. That is Sandra, correct? I wanna make sure I got that out right. Let's talk about people you want to thank for their support. Uh, first off, I would like to thank, um, our superintendent Glover. Um, I would like to thank, uh, teachers that have also helped out this year and in, in years past, uh, Ms. Caroline Gonye, Ms. Michelle Curateello, um, Melissa Cedar, who's a community member, she's not a teacher in the district, but she's a community member, a large part of our community. Uh, I also thank para professionals from Martin Luther King School, Heather Cooperstein. They're there every week, uh, with us helping us out. Supporting the program, um, and I'd like to think overall, you know, the scattaway schools as a whole because everyone plays their part to make Buddy Ball success and I appreciate that very much. You also have a security guard who's great who helps you out. That's Mr. Eric Rola who's uh a really good guy makes sure every Monday night all our kids are getting in and out safely, and I appreciate him very much. Why is it so important to you all to help the special needs population in your school? Because I know these are beautiful kids. Our I say our population of special needs kids is increasing every year. I know in our school alone we've got 6 classrooms and all of our classrooms are completely full with 6 kids in, so it's getting it out there and really showing the parents that you know we're there, we're there to help in and out of school to make them feel like they're appreciated. That is beautiful what you just said and is that how you feel as a parent? Yes, and I love that the program is right in town and it's 2 minutes away and it's every Monday, so my son looks forward to going. Am I allowed to ask his name? What does he say about name is Shane? What does he say about the program? He loves it. Yes, the first time he went, he told me it was great. Yeah, how do the kids interact with each other? Uh, in a lot of ways they just love it. I mean some of the kids will just bear hug each other borderline tackling each other to the ground. Um, our older group is a lot more social sometimes we joke around and say they're the breakfast Club, um, because when they walk. Especially warming up they I mean they just talk and talk and talk like they're the best of friends and it's just so nice you can see their faces light up uh when they see each other and it's just it's great. Quickly as a child of Pewe, what does all this mean to you? Um, so it means a lot to me. My father was, uh, hired in 1974 in Piscataway schools, um, was there until 2014, so it's kind of a pay forward moment for me because he always told me do more than just teach, do more than just teach. He always said that to me, um, so for me. It's, it's full circle and it means a lot when I hear that families love this um my athletes are having fun um it's a haven for them every week and also like I said, a lot of volunteers have become teachers or will become teachers because of this program, so it means the world to me that means so much to everyone.

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Coaches Vincenzo Stio, Shannon Lauder, Dana Pepe and parent Sandra Permaul joined News 12’s Della Crews to discuss the league’s mission.

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