A Celebration of Life memorial was held in honor of senior Ava Hecht on Thursday, January 22 in the Murray Kahn Theater. The ceremony started at 3:45 p.m. and ended approximately at 6:30 p.m.

Hecht died on Thursday, January 8 from a meningococcal infection.

Principal Stanley Teitel and Assistant Principal Guidance Eleanor Archie created the memorial event and contacted several of Hecht’s friends to help coordinate it.

Seniors Rosie Kavanagh, Erica Sands, Mark Surya were among the students who helped organize the event.

“Ava touched so many people that in our preparation, we tried to include everyone who wanted to say something—which is why we arrived at the decision to do an open mic,” Kavanagh said.

Kavanagh was the Master of Ceremonies and opened the Celebration of Life with an introduction. Teitel then gave a brief speech which was followed by a performance from the eighth period chorus and several members of the sixth period chorus who sang a song from the Lord of the Rings, “Into the West.”

The open mic session began with members of the faculty sharing their memories of Hecht.

Students then took turns speaking onstage.

“[The memorial] was very nice and students shared their personal memories of Ava,” senior Mem Barnett said.

A particular highlight of the memorial was when students presented the oven prop from the 2008 spring production “Don’t Drink the Water.” In preparation for the production, Hecht pushed the oven down the West Side Highway from a friend’s home to Stuyvesant.

“[The memorial] gave the student body an outlet for what we’ve been dealing with,” Kavanagh said.