By Shimmy Pianko, DRS Junior

Spring is in the air, and that means one very special day at DRS. While the weather is beautiful, and the world focuses on baseball Opening Day, the students at DRS were busy donating blood by the pint to the New York Blood Association. With the help of very dedicated Seniors, led by Blood Drive coordinator Steven Greenstein, over 100 students and faculty members donated blood on Monday. While donating blood can make someone weak, the donuts, orange juice, and various blood drive prizes that were given out kept the mood upbeat.

In 2002, DRS was honored with the title of "Blood Drive Champions" for the highest percentage of participating Seniors in the Tri-State Area. After the incredible success of Blood Drive 2005, we are confident that we will once again compete for the coveted title this year. We thank and congratulate all those who participated in this tremendous act of chessed.

We are so excited to report that the first ever published DRS Sefer Mesamchei Lev has just arrived hot off the presses!! This fantastic collection of Halachic and Hashkafic articles on the holiday of Pesach and topics the boys have been learning this year in Masechet Pesachim will be taken home by the boys today for your reading pleasure. A very special thank you goes to Rabbi Yehuda Balsam who spent countless hours completing the monumental task of editing the volume. Thanks as well as always for Chaim Hollander for all of his assistance in the publishing.

Our deep feelings of Hakarot Hatov go to the Williams family as well for conceiving the entire idea for the sefer, and for dedicating this first volume of the sefer. Thanks as well to the Goldberg, Fromowitz, Pasternak, Goodman, and Schertz families for helping with the sponsorship. But most of all, the 8 Rabbeim and 35 Talmidim who contributed Torah articles for the sefer should really be commended for bringing their torah ideas to print for the greater Yeshiva community. May they merit seeing continued hatzlacha in all of their torah endeavors.

As Pesach approaches, the atmosphere in the Yeshiva has been enhanced by the presence of DRS Alumni home from Yeshiva in Israel. The pre Pesach learning program has been a great success so far, and we are looking forward to continuing over Shabbat with a special Oneg at the Kaminetsky home on Friday night, and a full schedule for Shiurim and programs Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Be sure to download the complete schedule below!

A brand new special chessed opportunity exists for our students every Thursday night. We now have the privilege of hosting our friends from Kulanu Torah Academy at a special one-on-one learning program in the DRS Bait Medrash. The brainchild of DRS Parents Seme Joszef and Mayer Rosenfeld, this program has attracted approximately thirty DRS boys and ten boys from Kulanu.

The boys learn and share torah thoughts together for the first half hour, and then the Kulanu boys join together with our Thursday night Dougie's snack. It has been a great experience so far for our students and for the Kulanu boys, and we look forward to this program continuing for many years to come.

DRS is the recipient of a three year grant totalling $15,000 from the Avi Chai Foundation. AVI CHAI's Bookshelf Grant, is a three year $1.9 million program, designed to enhance libraries at Jewish high schools in the United States and Canada. "This gift is wonderful. Our Library and Media Center will benefit greatly by increasing our holding of Judaic and secular books, periodicals and multi media materials," says Mrs. Hefter, DRS Librarian and Director of College Guidance. DRS will use at least fifty percent of the grant toward the purchase of Judaic works, and the rest toward secular and database materials.

In other library news, DRS Librarian Mrs. Hefter welcomed Penninsula Library Director, Ms. Arleen Reo and Reference Librarian, Mr. Jim Tiberg to the DRS library. The visitors helped us expand upon the various resources available to our students and staff through the Penninsula Public Library and the Nassau County Library System. They encouraged our students to visit them at Peninsula Library and avail themselves of additional hard copy and reference materials. We are grateful to Ms. Reo and Mr. Tiberg for their time.

In what has become a tradition in his shiur, Rabbi Emerson hosted "Sederfest 2005," the annual Freshman Mock Seder. Using "matzah" made out of sugar cookies, a fascinating video presentation of Maggid, and a tasty "Shulchan Orech Make Your Own Sundae" event, the shiur went through each step of the Seder, in a unique Haggadah prepared by Rabbi Emerson, and learned the appropriate Halachot and their reasons. The students are very excited to use their special edition Haggadah at their own sedarim.

On Wednesday, the Senior class had the privilege of hosting Sarri Singer of the One Family Fund, an organization that helps families of terror victims in Israel. Ms. Singer spoke to the students about the unique nature of the Jewish people, and how their greatness shines forth most brilliantly when the times are the most difficult.

She recounted her own amazing story about her aliyah to Israel and her subsequent surviving of a terrorist attack on a bus she was riding. Ms. Singer encouraged the students to make the most of their upcoming year in Israel, and she described to them the various opportunities the One Family Fund offers students to help with victims of terror in Israel.

By Sam Schertz, DRS Freshman

On Tuesday the soccer team had a tough loss against HAFTR, by a score of 7-4. Prior to the game, the team's record was 1-1. The squad started out slowly, falling behind 2-0 in the first period, but then scored to make it 2-1. HAFTR then scored to make it 3-1, but the Wildcats would not fall. Our boys scored to make it a 1 goal game, which was followed by 2 HAFTR goals to make it 5-2. Then with 6 minutes left in the 3rd period, Freshman goalie Samuel Schertz came in and made a couple of key saves .To start the 4th period, senior Sam Lauer scored a goal and cut the lead to 5-3. DRS kept the pressure up, and when Shlomo Hagler headed the ball into the net to pull the cats within one, we thought we might beat HAFTR. Alas, we could not pull out the victory, but it was definitely a great game.

This past week, the defending champion J.V. softball team, as well as the Varsity softball and golf teams held tryouts. Judging by the talent at the tryouts, we are confident that our teams will prove to be forces to be reckoned with once again as the seasons begin this Friday, with a softball doubleheader against HAFTR.