Pines Elementary School students sing the national anthem before the Mets doubleheader on Aug. 12. Photo from Hauppauge Public Schools
Third, fourth and fifth grade students from Pines Elementary School in Hauppauge had the exciting opportunity to sing the national anthem before the start of the Mets doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves at Citi Field on Saturday, Aug. 12.
Students from Pines Elementary have fun exploring Citi Field before singing the national anthem on the field. Photo courtesy Hauppauge Public Schools
Beginning in February, students began rehearsals for the event, meeting five times outside of school hours to practice. Music teacher Theresa Wray-Dolgin led the practices, and students were required to attend all the rehearsals to perform.
This has become an annual event with the first group of Pines Elementary students singing at Citi Field in March 2018. Janine D’Elia, Pines Elementary School PTA event coordinator, organizes the event each year.
“We were filled with great anticipation, and the day met all of our expectations and more,” Wray-Dolgin said. “It was a magical experience. Our thanks go out to Janine D’Elia who makes this all possible, and I thank her most sincerely for giving me the opportunity to be their musical director for this joyous occasion.”
Following the students’ dazzling rendition of the national anthem, retired Pines Elementary art teacher Elisabeth Anziano was asked to throw the honorary first pitch of the game as a celebratory gesture toward her many years of dedication to her students.
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Yes, that is the first stanza of our national anthem, the star-spangled banner. It has been my experience, at ballgames and other public gatherings (remember those?) where the anthem has played, that many Americans do not know all the words. In fact, not a lot of the words. In truth, not any of the words beyond the first two sentences. Confess: that’s you or your spouse or your children.
Now there is always a story behind every creation. In honor of our nation’s upcoming birthday, I thought I would tell you some of the controversial story and remind you of the words of at least the first and last of the four stanzas written by Francis Scott Key.
So who was Francis Scott Key and how did he come to write these words?
Key was a good-looking, rich American lawyer, author and amateur poet who was from Frederick, Maryland. Born August 1, 1779, three years after the start of the Revolutionary War, he lived to be 63, dying at the beginning of 1843. He was married to Mary (“Polly”) Tayloe Lloyd and they had eleven children. Incidentally, F. Scott Fitzgerald was a distant relative.
We remember that we learned of Key viewing the attack by the British on Fort McHenry from a ship outside Baltimore during the brief War of 1812, and how he could not tell, through the dark night, if the fort had fallen to the enemy. But at dawn, when he saw the flag still flying, he was inspired to write the poem in 1814 that was to become our national song.
His friends called him “Frank,” which often blended with Key to come out “Frankie.” He had a high profile, having been part of Andrew Jackson’s Kitchen Cabinet, the unofficial advisers who were so influential. He defended a young Sam Houston in court on the latter’s trial over beating up an Ohio congressman. He was U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, and he prosecuted the would-be assassin of President Jackson, who by the way was a Southern slaveholder.
Key, as a youth, had almost become an Episcopal priest, helped found two seminaries and wrote about poetry’s influence on religion. He also had a complicated and contradictory relationship with slavery. He personally owned six slaves, though he allegedly opposed the practice and eventually set them all free. Yet he did not do so for the many slaves his wife inherited and who worked the farm that provided much of the family’s income. He represented slaves for free in court who were trying to win their freedom, yet he was bitterly opposed to the abolitionist movement, and as U.S. district attorney, challenged its efforts. He strongly supported the colonization of former slaves in Africa, helping to found the colony of Liberia.
It is no surprise, then, that in the recent rush to tear down statues, his was toppled on Friday, June 19, in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Today we have come to recognize that the imperfect Key is inseparably linked with slavery and pride in our nation.
O thus be it ever when free men shall stand
Between their lov’d homes and the war’s desolation!
Bless’d with victory and peace, may the Heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust!”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
More than 100 family members and friends showed up at Citi Field to hear Jordan Amato sing the national anthem. Photo from the Amato family.
For one high school senior, the school year has started on the right note.
Jordan Amato’s view of Citi Field on the day she sang the national anthem at the ballpark. Photo from the Amato family
South Setauket resident Jordan Amato, 17, performed the national anthem at Citi Field Sept. 8. While it was the second time she sang at the stadium — the first was the summer of 2018 — this time around she had a special guest with her.
In addition to the more than 100 friends and family members in attendance was Ryan Starace, who was the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Long Island chapter’s Boy of the Year in 2019. Amato and her family invited Ryan and his family to join them at the game after she helped to raise $36,000 for the nonprofit in the 2018-19 school year. Amato was the co-president of the multigenerational fundraising team 3vforacure in raising funds for the LLS Students of the Year campaign.
Sara Lipsky, executive director of the Long Island chapter of LLS, said Amato went above and beyond aiding the nonprofit’s mission of finding cures and supporting patients and their families.
“Raising $36,000 is a feat in itself,” Lipsky said. “Add school and extracurricular activities make it even more remarkable. Now, she continues to carry that passion forward by creating a very special day for a very special boy.”
Amato said even though she usually doesn’t suffer from performance anxiety, the second time around singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Citi Field was nerve-racking. It wasn’t just because of the throng of people hearing her sing, but because there were problems with the sound system, and she only heard the reverb while singing.
“It was kind of terrifying,” she said.
Her father, Steve Amato, thought she did a wonderful job.
“Not because she is my daughter, but she truly has a great voice and her rendition of the national anthem is excellent,” he said.
Overall the Citi Field experiences have been surreal for the family. Her mother, Jacque Amato, said the family has attended many games at the stadium, but it was a different experience walking up from the underground area to the field.
The opportunity to sing at the stadium came about when Amato sang at her grandmother’s funeral Mass. The husband of one of her father’s cousins works at Citi Field, and after hearing her sing he suggested she send in an audition tape.
The singer’s mother said her daughter sang a cappella that day in the church.
Jordan Amato, middle back row, and her family on the big day when she sang the national anthem at the Mets ballpark. Photo from the Amato family
“When Jordan got up there to sing, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house,” the mother said.
The singer’s father said to prepare for singing the national anthem at a venue like Citi Field, in addition to her singing lessons, his daughter sang at a Stony Brook University game, entered the Long Island Ducks Anthem Idol — where she won — and The Ward Melville Heritage Organization’s Long Island’s Got Talent. She also won a talent contest where the prize was singing a solo at Carnegie Hall.
Her parents said singing is something that came naturally to her, and when she was in fifth grade, they were surprised when she told them she was going to be singing in a talent show with one of her friends. Before that, they had never even heard her even hum.
Jordan Amato said one day she noticed she could sing well and figured, why not try it?
“I was pretty shy as a kid, so it was kind of unusual for me to be comfortable with singing in front of people, but I found it more comfortable than talking in front of people,” she said.
Last year in addition to balancing her fundraising efforts and singing, the now senior had a 102 unweighted average. Her mother said it’s no surprise she has accomplished so much.
“She has laser focus,” the mother said. “When she wants something, she just puts everything in the basket, and she’s just 100 miles an hour in one direction. She’s very goal oriented. She’s the most organized kid I ever met.”
Jordan Amato is hoping for another successful academic year, and while she’s planning to study singing in college, she said she will most likely go to medical school to become an ear, nose and throat doctor specializing in throat surgeries after shadowing her friends’ parents who are laryngologists last summer. She said the profession is interesting not only due to the doctor helping to heal patients but also training singers to regain their singing voices.
When it comes to trying out something new, Amato had advice for young people.
“Try it out,” she said. “If it doesn’t fit you, it’s not for you.”
