Long Island students are spreading warmth this holiday season in the form of winter clothing.

Dozens of local schools recently coordinated collections of cold-weather apparel ranging from scarves to socks to help individuals and families in need survive the winter chill.

One such effort saw nearly 3,000 winter coats collected by William Floyd United Teachers, a labor union for the William Floyd school district in Mastic Beach. The coats were then distributed during the third annual giveaway, along with winter hats, gloves and children’s books, school officials said.

“It’s incredible to see us all come together to make sure our neighbors are cared for and supported — not just with coats and food, but with kindness and dignity,” Kari Garfen, chairwoman of the union’s Local Action Committee, said in a statement.

Other efforts included sock drives at Munsey Park Elementary School in Manhasset and Vanderbilt Elementary School in Dix Hills, which netted about 1,500 and 1,100 pairs of new socks, respectively. Vanderbilt’s socks went to multiple organizations, while Munsey’s socks went to The INN in Hempstead and the nonprofit Veterans of Foreign Wars.

In West Hempstead, the secondary school’s varsity cheerleaders held a one-day collection drive for items ranging from jackets to jewelry that filled half of a 16-foot truck. Items went to Go Green, a clothing recycling company, with two top donors winning gift cards to a local restaurant and the clothing company Lululemon.

In Lake Ronkonkoma, Sachem High School North senior Nicholas Golding spearheaded the collection of 3,300 pairs of socks this fall through his third annual “Socktober” initiative.

“Giving back to people in need is incredibly motivating and inspiring,” Golding said. “It has been my passion since I was a kid.”

JERICHO

Research winners

Three students in the Jericho school district were winners in the New York State Archives’ 2025 Student Research Awards competition, which “encourages students to explore the wealth of historical records” in repositories statewide, according to its website.

Jericho High School junior Victor Gao won the high school level for his essay on the Mariel boatlift, a mass migration of Cubans who traveled to the United States from Cuba’s Mariel Harbor in 1980.

Jericho Middle School students Constance Ling and Lilian Zhou won for the middle school level with their website on the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which followed the disease’s effects when untreated in Black men for 40 years, ending in 1972. The men were not told the implications of the study. Penicillin was known to be effective since the 1940s.

NASSAU

$76K grants

The Nassau BOCES Educational Foundation has awarded 23 grants, totaling more than $76,000, to local educators to “enhance the learning experiences” for students in Nassau BOCES programs and schools.

The grants will help fund items including a vital-signs monitor at Joseph M. Barry Career & Technical Education Center in Westbury, adaptive desks at Carman Road School in Massapequa Park and fiber-optic “tranquility tunnels” used to calm children at Jerusalem Avenue Elementary School in North Bellmore, Nassau BOCES officials said.

“We are extremely proud of the positive impact that these grants have had on students,” Tony Fierro, the foundation’s chairman, said in a statement.

PLAINVIEW

Innovator Awards

Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School’s POBots robotics team has won the Community Impact Award, which is part of Optimum’s Innovator Awards and comes with a $2,000 prize.

The team received the award for initiatives last season that included designing puzzles for local Alzheimer’s patients, participating in beach cleanups and hosting a community night promoting science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM.

By Michael R. Ebert

michael.ebert@newsday.com

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.