Memorial at Smith Point to honor LI teacher

Surfers will gather Sunday to mourn a Long Island schoolteacher killed before New Year's while she was snowmobiling in Vermont.

They'll gather at Smith Point at about 11 a.m., build a bonfire, don wetsuits and honor the teacher, Kristen T. Bednar, by venturing into the water, said Bob Kuenzler, 47, of Medford.

Kuenzler said they'll form a circle, pray and put flowers into the ocean - a place where Bednar loved to surf.

"Every time I surf, I'm going to be thinking of Kristen," he said.

Bednar, an avid sportswoman who lived in East Patchogue, died Dec. 31 after crashing the snowmobile into a tree the day before in West Windsor, Vt., where she had gone with family to celebrate New Year's.