Teens inspire kids to 'pay it forward'

It was a simple act of kindness, during a ferocious winter storm in February, that inspired Long Islanders from Merrick to Montauk.

Many wrote or called to say that what Kendall Levy and Marvin Voltaire had done that day -- helping an elderly couple move a dead car as they stood knee-deep in icy rain -- was extraordinary.

And now, that good deed by the two high school students has inspired youngsters at another school to pay it forward.

Sixth-, seventh- and eighth- graders at Our Lady of Peace School in Lynbrook were told to write to the two boys, their principal at Valley Stream North High School, or the elderly couple they helped, to tell them just how impressed they were by the boys.

And impressed they were.

"Those kids are amazing," said Roseann Tukay, an eighth-grader at the Lynbrook school. "They had a choice to do this deed or not and they made a good choice," added classmate Elysia Harrison.

Some of the eighth-graders said they were surprised the two boys had taken the time out of a busy morning to stop and help.

On a busy street. In the middle of a punishing winter storm.

"They could have come up with excuses not to help, but they didn't," said Lorraine Jabouin.

Equally impressive, some youngsters said: When the two boys arrived late to school that day, wet and cold, they never even told their principal why.

"Why didn't they tell?" Victoria DiGiovanni wondered aloud.

"I was like, 'Wow,' " said Joe Casals.

While they may not have told friends and classmates their good deed, Elaine Treske, who owned the cars that were moved, did. She called the school because she didn't want Levy, a junior, and Voltaire, a senior, to get into trouble.

"They and the Treskes are good, caring, and decent people," said John Moustakas.

The discussion at Our Lady of Peace came after Karen Von Braunsberg, a health teacher, assigned the sixth, seventh and eighth grades to write the letters to Levy, Voltaire, their parents, the Treskes, or high school Principal Clifford Odell.

The students selected names at random. And they wrote, passionately, eloquently and perceptively, about how what happened one dreary day had changed their perception of small acts of kindness.

"I am thunderstruck that so much good continues to come from this," Odell said, hours after the missives were delivered to the high school.

During the discussion in the library, it was clear that Levy and Voltaire had made the deepest impression on the soon-to-be graduates, most of them 13 and 14 years old.

(Psssst, guys, I did, as promised, ask Mr. Odell about the possibility of having Levy and Voltaire pay you a visit. Keep your fingers crossed!)

Taken together, the letters from all three classes said more about the younger students than about their teenage heroes.

Some letters praised Odell for running a school that produced such fine young men; others told the teens' parents their sons were an inspiration.

The students wrote of how the kind deed reflected their own morals and values -- about how the deed also spoke to the core of their Roman Catholic beliefs.

Some letters to the Treskes showed empathy, which can be unusual in students so young: One writer worried about the possibility that they could have been hurt moving the car in the storm.

"We read every one of the letters," said Elaine Treske. "My husband cried, they were so wonderful." She said the couple intends to answer the students.

The Treskes, along with Levy and Voltaire's parents, were on hand when the Valley Stream community came together recently to honor the young men.

And the honors keep coming, in a different way, from the cascade of good deeds they've set off.

"One of my neighbors turned 100 years old, I took her garbage to the street," said Alana Pierce.

And then, one by one, her classmates began to chime in: "I walked a dog up and down the street," "I was holding a door for an elderly couple," "We spend Thursdays sewing quilts for AIDS babies," "I picked up a box for my neighbor and put it in the car for her."

There were more, many more. Good deeds sprouting from seeds planted one dreary day in a cold winter storm.