On Sunday, Bridgeport High School Principal Mark DeFazio sent out a plea to the community for nearly 70 students – or family members – to pick up items belonging to them at the school. The items were more than 100 plaques and other awards, primarily medals, which have been earned by students and left for storage at the school.

 

The message by DeFazio was a simple one. And that was that as much as he didn’t want to do it, the items had to be picked up or that they would likely end up being thrown away.

 

The good news for DeFazio about the items, some of which that have been at the school for a decade, is that the message got out. This morning, DeFazio said he had already had double digit visitors pick up items that.

 

“Before 11 a.m. this morning 10 parents had already come in,” said DeFazio. “I was pleasantly surprised to see so many come in that quickly and I was told by some of the parents there were others coming too so that’s a good thing.”

 

DeFazio said in an article on Connect-Bridgeport Sunday that there were nearly 70 students that had not picked up the 100-plus honors. He said the oldest award that had been left in storage at the school was from 2005.

 

“I hope people continue to come and pick them up. I’d like to get rid of everything by the end of July, even if it’s some of the medals that kids won for track, they should have those because they’ve earned them,” said DeFazio. “If the kids don’t want them, I imagine the parents do and the message I want to make sure everyone hears is that the items are here for you to pick up.”

 

A lot of the items come from the annual BB&T Athletes of the Year Banquet. DeFazio said the fact that the banquet is held after school lets out when some student-athletes are on vacation are participating in summer sports means many of the honors come back to BHS with DeFazio or Assistant Principal and Athletic Director Matt DeMotto.

 

“We brought back nearly 30 from the banquet last month. Imagine accumulating those for the last seven or eight years like that and you end up with boxes everywhere,” said DeFazio. “We understand that when it happens after school that it makes it a bit more difficult, but we also can’t serve as a storage facility. Trust me, the last thing I want to do is throw any of these items away.”

 

DeFazio said the best time to pick up the items at the school are between 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. as he will likely be there.

 

This list of students that had items prior to potentially picking them up today, include the following (and apologies for incorrect spellings): Alexis Alastanos, Brier Anderson, Sammy Belcastro, Josh Boggio, Dante Bonamico, Tommy Brunswick, Celena Bryant, Jordyn Bush, A.C. Caldera, Salvator Cava, Hannah Clark, Cullin Cutright, Mike Davis, Joseph Dodrill, Elijah Drummond, Kaitlyn Frazier, Jacob Funk, Tanner Furbee, Nick Greely, Emily Griffith, Hunter Haddix, Brandon Hanlan, J.T. Harris, Drew Hefner, Gabriela Hemeon, Jeremy Hodge, Mackenzie Holmes, Meranda Hurd, Cody Hutchinson, Koby Kiefer, Timmy Kinney, Pa draig Kirkwood, John Koon, Connor Kornbrath, Donald Kummer, Jimmy Lacaria, Justin Lantz, Molly Layne, Sydney Leatherman, Reagen Lesher, Michael Logsdon, Noah Markley, Robert Marton, Hannah McCall, Caitlyn McDaniel, Christian Mease, Cady Messenger, Trevor Moon, Houston Morris, Harrison Musgrave, Mikayla Oliverio, Morganne Phillips, Fernando Porras, Brandon Purkey, Emily Riggs, Morgan Signorelli, Zack Spurlock, Cameron Stanley, Presley Stein, Shae Tomasik, Dylan Tonkery, Jessica Trickett, Michael Vismans, Brady Weaver, Jenna Weightman, and Allison Winans.