Luca Catalano: Black Bear Community Award
Student Name: Luca Catalano
Date of Recognition: February 14th, 2024
House Team: Skye Peak
Faculty Presenter: Courtney O’Keefe
Advisor: Shayna Miller & Dylan Conte
Sport: Downhill Mountain Biking
KMS is proud to recognize Luca Catalano as this week's Black Bear Community Award recipient. Luca is a Full-Term, Downhill Mountain Biking Athlete, who comes to KMS from Hurley, New York. Luca was nominated by several of our faculty this week, each recognizing his selfless commitment to our community through his volunteerism, his dedication to embracing the best of what our athletic programming has to offer, and his determination to make the campus spaces that we all share one that we can be proud of and enjoy.
Putting forth his support of this nomination is Gravity Mountain Bike Coach Josh Poirer. Josh states that Luca "is always a positive role model for the younger kids." His willingness to show up each day, and put in the hard work necessary to grow athletically is something that many admire as well as take notice with regards to this young man. As a result, others have become inspired by his dedication and focus, and recognize him as a true example of what hard work and commitment can truly achieve.
Also supporting this nomination is Academic Director Liz Cardiasmenos. Liz comments that "Luca did a great job volunteering at our auction." This recent community event continues to be a success for a variety of different reasons. One of these reasons is the volunteerism from our student body, who take on a variety of different roles throughout the night. Luca contributed throughout this night with managing the school stores, helping with the live poker game, and writing down names during the live bidding.
And lastly, Math and Science Teacher Adam Boshart, Executive chef Patrick Bonandl, and Foreign Language Teacher Ana Araguas, all acknowledged Luca's willingness to step up and help with maintaining our community spaces. Noticing that a repair job needed more work on an interior wall in our building, Luca went out and bought the materials needed to address the issue. Using his background in construction, he was able to get what he needed and completed the overall repair without any prompting or direction from our faculty. When he was asked why he decided to do this for us he humbly responded, "It was the right thing to do. It's our building and we should all do our part to make it someplace special for everyone."
Please join us in congratulating Luca for his amazing contributions to our community. Thank you, Luca! We are proud to call you one of our own.
