The purpose of HOPE (Hellenic Orthodox Primary Education) and JOY (Junior Orthodox Youth) is to gather and create Orthodox Christian fellowship for children ages 4-7 and 8-12 respectively. By making friendships earlier on, the children will want to come and participate later for GOYA (Greek Orthodox Youth of America) and have a greater participation in the Greek Orthodox Christian community. Our HOPE and JOY Organization had a great year! We began our season with a wonderful Holiday Dinner/ Movie Night. What a great turnout! All of our families enjoyed the delic iou s Turkey Dinner along with the featured movie. We also had "Pool Night," hosted by the Holiday Inn Express in Setauket. It was a great time had by all.

Our children of JOY participated in this years Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan District Olympics, Memorial Day weekend. We had 21 athletes compete and showed their enthusiasm and great sportsmanship. All of our children represented our church with pride and dignity. Let's not forget our dedicated parents who cheered our athletes all weekend long. Finally, I want to thank our Advisors, Spiro Dimeck and Ted Mattas for organizing this year’s events. We look forward to another exciting and fun-filled year. Please come and join our HOPE and JOY organization to meet new families and make life long friendships. Look for our flyer in the next newsletter with our 2009-2010 calendar of events. We would like to wish you all a safe, relaxing and fun summer with your family and friends.“

Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity 1 Timothy 4:12