Chaminade student Ryan Scuderi collects 'lids for kids'
Ryan Scuderi, a student at Chaminade High School in Mineola, collected more than 500 hats, plus $10,000. Credit: Courtney Scuderi
A student at Chaminade High School in Mineola who was diagnosed last year with Hodgkin's lymphoma has been striving to help other young people struggling with hair loss.
Ryan Scuderi, a junior, organized an initiative called "Lids for Kids" that collected more than 500 new hats of varying colors and styles this spring for the Children's Medical Fund of New York. He also raised more than $10,000 in online donations.
Scuderi, 17, said he is now in remission after having undergone a six-month cycle of treatment every other week at Cohen's Children's Medical Center.
"After I lost my hair I was very insecure, and it was kind of my weakness," Scuderi said. "Most kids usually feel that as they’re doing chemotherapy their hair is a big part of the emotional damage done, but as I went on with my treatment and threw on my hat I felt like a normal person."
To collect the hats, Scuderi said his family spread the word about his efforts on social media. They then began receiving hats through the mail as well as from friends and family who dropped them off at their house.
"I was shocked," Scuderi said of the volume of donations. "We initially had a goal of 100 hats, but they just kept rolling in."
Scuderi is also a member of his school's golf team and National Honor Society as well as the Ambassadors, Business and Culinary clubs.
Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.
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