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Merrick teens design clothes, jewelry for charity

BY DENISE FLAIM | denise.flaim@newsday.com

3:10 PM EDT, March 9, 2008

When it comes to generating high-profile teen role models, Merrick could have a better track record.

There is, of course, Amy Fisher, the "Long Island Lolita," whose attempted murder of her then-boyfriend's wife added "Buttafuoco" to the national lexicon, and whose most recent body of work was a sex tape released in the fall. Fresher headline fodder is South Shore daughter Lindsay Lohan, whose list of rehab stints grows almost as long as her cinematic resumé.

But redemption is here at last. The Nassau town's newest buzz comes from a group of young women as fresh and idealistic as an early Billy Joel album.

One Is Greater Than None (oneisgreaterthannone.org) -- or 1>0, as it's known graphically -- started almost a year ago in the Barnofsky living room in south Merrick, where a group of eight 14-year-olds brainstormed to come up with a charity-work project they could all agree on. Then, on a TiVo-ed "Oprah" episode, they found it: Young boys in Ghana were being enslaved by the fishing trade, forced to live on meager rations while pulling in, and sometimes drowning under, fishing nets.

A humanitarian operation by the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration gives each rescued boy 21/2 years of shelter, food, education and care, while his family is given resources to deal with the overwhelming poverty that led to their situation to begin with.

The cost: $4,300 per child.

It was a solid number, a tangible goal that appealed to the assembled girls -- Kayla Barnofsky, who designed the logo; Sammi Malis; Anjelica Mantikas; Sammy Walnick; Hayley and Jessica Feldman, who are identical twin redheads; Ariel Stern; and Chelsea Genden, who, as a Lynbrook resident, is the only one who doesn't live in Merrick and the first to turn 15. They decided to make and sell handmade bracelets and necklaces to raise the funds.

"But what if we only make enough money to save one?" asked one of the girls (no one remembers exactly who).

The response gave rise to their name.

Today, One Is Greater Than None has eclipsed the girls' wildest expectations. With multiple media appearances under their belts -- including "Today" and "Martha Stewart Living," and a spread in Teen Vogue -- the girls have raised more than $60,000 for the rescue missions. Their clothing line, a collection of T-shirts, hoodies and sweat pants with a collegiate feel that debuted in November, has just landed a spot in Bloomingdale's activewear department, spitting distance from Juicy Couture. And all eight girls will be on hand at the chain's Roosevelt Field store on Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. (The collection is also available online at shopintu ition.com -- click on Give Back.)

On a recent weekday, three of the 1>0 girls convened yet again in the Barnofsky living room, grazing on yogurt-covered pretzel sticks, macaroons and Harry & David Moose Munch. A compendium of their media appearances -- from footage of the Teen Vogue photo shoot to an awkward " CBS Early Show" segment -- flickered on the large-screen TV.

Do they think they are privileged?

"Extremely," says Sammy, almost reflexively.

"We have food in our cabinets, we have options," says Kayla, whose sense of justice is so finely honed she repositioned herself during an earlier photo shoot, concerned that she was hogging the prime middle position. "And if we don't have something we needed, we could find a way to get it."

As for visiting Ghana some day, she is adamant: "I'd rather save another kid than spend the money to go there and see ones I've saved." Her mother, Karen Barnofsky, gently suggests that seeing the fruit of her labor might motivate her even more.

Chelsea has a different reason for wanting to stay home: Seeing that much need might prove too overwhelming, and "if I went, I'd probably come home with a child."

And there is much still to do here. The girls take turns weaving the bracelets, which sell for $28, using a technique learned at summer camp and numbering and initialing their creations. They get together for group sessions to make the $20 necklaces, each centered around a recycled glass bead from Ghana, flanked by eight beads, representing each girl. (The apparel line is made by Montreal-based AMCAN.)

The story of One Is Greater Than None transcends the knot of teenagers at its core, to a larger Long Island with an often-tarnished reputation for plasma-television pretensions, unchecked road rage and a palpable sense of entitlement.

"We didn't realize so many people would want to help us," says Kayla, from the company that donated its Web site to the photographer who took their first publicity shots. "It's, like, insane."

Reading the reams of fan mail is equally as affirming, like the note from the fourth-grader who apologized for only raising $40 in a cupcake sale.

"We don't even know the residual impact of what these girls have done," says Karen Barnofsky. "You can say that these girls are special, but the really exciting thing is they're not. There are lots of girls all over the country just like them. It's this 9/11 generation that has woken up and said, 'The world is broken.'"

And they are going to fix it, one handmade bracelet at a time.