HHH student helps special needs kids
Janna Zilkha, a senior at Half Hollow Hills High School East in Dix Hills, has raised funds for children with special needs through her community service project called Bottles for Buddies. Credit: Naomi Zilkha
A Dix Hills teenager, in an effort spanning six years, has collected more than 70,000 empty plastic bottles to help children with special needs and the environment.
Janna Zilkha, a senior at Half Hollow Hills High School East, has gathered the bottles through her community service project called Bottles for Buddies.
She redeems the bottles for money to benefit Ariella's NY Friendship Circle, a nonprofit based in Dix Hills that brings teens and children with special needs together for friendship.
"I'm really amazed and grateful," Zilkha, 17, said of the donations.
She said she was inspired to help children with special needs after her cousin, Roi, who has special needs, came to live with her family following the tsunami in Japan in 2011. She has received several awards, including the Ariella's NY Friendship Circle's Teen Philanthropist of the Year Award for 2018, a proclamation from the Town of Huntington, and a Daily Point of Light Award from the nonprofit Points of Light.
Zilkha, a Girl Scout, also is community service coordinator for Half Hollow Hills East's National Honor Society. In addition, she founded the school's National Chinese Honor Society chapter and is vice president of the Tri-M Music Honor Society chapter.
Recently, she was chosen as her school's nominee for the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program and named a semifinalist in this year's Coca-Cola Scholars Program.
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.
