Magic moment
E. Village kids win! Off to Disney, thanks to News
THEY’RE FLYING off to Florida.
Thirty lucky students from East Side Community School in the East Village went berserk with joy when they learned Friday that they had won a Daily News contest for a trip to Universal Studios.
The eighth-graders clinched victory in The News’ annual Win a Universal Orlando Class Trip contest by collecting the most bar codes from the covers of the print edition of New York’s hometown paper.
Collecting the codes was tough, the teens said, but the work paid off.
“I’m speechless, I’m just overjoyed,” said Athena Arnau 14, of the Lower East Side, who wept tears of joy upon learning the news.
“I’ve never been there before and I’m going to get to experience it with my friends. That’s the best part,” Athena said.
“We’ve been waiting to hear for so long if we were the ones,” said Melissa Bayantemur, 14, of Bushwick, who also cried with happiness at the good news. “We worked so hard for this.”
The hardworking East Side Community School students amassed the bar codes from covers of The News for three weeks beginning in February.
The winning kids will head off on their Florida frolic in August, spending a magical vacation at Universal Orlando Resort in a free trip organized by The News’ circulation sales and marketing director, Ric Flattes.
The kids’ science teacher Ileana Solla called the trip an amazing opportunity.
“They were all working together to buy the newspapers, to cut out the bar codes and write the essay,” Solla said. “It was truly a class effort. I couldn’t be happier for them.”