If the third time is a charm, then the Mamaroneck High School FBLA has just charmed New York State. For the third year in a row, the Mamaroneck High School Future Business Leaders of America won the coveted “Chapter of the Year” event at the New York State Leadership Conference.
The contest required submitting a scrapbook which documented all chapter activities for the school year covering 29 categories. The activities are scheduled throughout the year and include community service, promoting FBLA at area high schools, school service, attending conferences and competing in many competitions throughout the state and country.
Members of the Mamaroneck FBLA show off their trophies from the New York State conference. Click for larger image.
Mamaroneck Chapter members won 14 additional individual and team awards at the conference. (See complete list below.) Eight of the awards were for first or second place, which qualify recipients to compete at the National Leadership Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, July 14 – 17. In addition, Ben Silverstein was elected state reporter. According to Josh Kanterman, a sophomore, “There’s nothing like the experience that one feels while looking into the crowd and realizing that I had actually won.”
Ben Silverstein (center) is installed as reporter for the New York State FBLA.
FBLA Advisor Retiring After 30 Years
This year marks the final chapter for Eileen Multari, FBLA advisor and business teacher at Mamaroneck High School and Hommocks Middle School. Ms. Multari has been teaching for 32 years and has been the advisor to FBLA for 30. Over that time, the teaching of business in the district has undergone tremendous changes.
When she first came to the district, there was a business department with six full-time business teachers. New York State had a business curriculum with Regents exams for each course. The curriculum included Accounting, Marketing, Business Law, Typing, and Shorthand. The business department was eliminated in 2000 and Ms. Multari has been teaching Microsoft Office programs to three classes in the Hommocks and Web Design/Digital Animation to two classes in the high school. “I had to learn all sorts of new things,” she said about the classes she has been assigned in recent years.
Her retirement plans begin with a move upstate, where she has 200 acres. Organic gardening is on the “to do” list, as are painting, photography, learning Italian, and “doing all the things I haven’t had time to do” while keeping tabs on her FBLA students. Mentoring the FBLA club “took my total focus and dedication,” she said. “Twelve years ago, my husband needed prostate cancer surgery and we scheduled the surgery around the state conference — that’s how dedicated we were and committed to the group’s success.”
“By the way, thank God he’s still here today.”
The students are hoping that someone will step forward to serve as FBLA advisor next year.
Eileen Multari is a tremendous mentor and one of the finest educators I’ve ever met. MHS and FBLA are losing a gem.
Best wishes in retirement!