Long Island

sg-uplifting stories

For retiree Joe Botkin, some things are "much better than watching TV," especially if they involve elbow grease, construction tools and tears — the happy kind. 
"Better" might be a wheelchair ramp, a new stairway, electrical repairs, yard work or other home improvement projects that make life easier for the Rebuilding Together Long Island clients the group helps each year. 
Rebuilding Together is a national nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., that helps low-income families, veterans, seniors, the disabled and those recovering from disasters repair their homes or make them more accessible. 
It has a nationwide network of 166 affiliates that includes the Long Island chapter. Its executive director, Bob Ellis, joined the nonprofit after responding to a job posting on Craigslist six years ago and is the only paid employee. 
The Long Island chapter was formed in 1992 by Botkin and fellow retiree Sol Goldstein, who met while working on Habitat for Humanity projects. With time on their hands in between Habitat projects, the friends pondered how best to use it. The answer came quickly. 
"I wanted to give back," said Goldstein, who lives in Massapequa and, like Botkin, is 83. He was a former technical manager at ABC television and is president of Rebuilding Together. Botkin, who lives in Great Neck and is the group's senior vice president, felt likewise. 
"I wanted to do something purposeful but completely different from the life I had led up to that time," said Botkin, former principal at PS 115 in Glen Oaks, Queens. 
The two recognized a need for an organization specializing in repairs for low-income homeowners. Botkin and Goldstein became an affiliate of the national group and, with three other volunteers, did small jobs, such as changing light switches and fixing leaky sinks and windows. 
In the past 22 years, about 356 volunteers have repaired more than 2,300 homes in Nassau and Suffolk counties. The group has worked on 107 projects this year, more than usual, as it has gotten more requests to repair homes damaged in 2012 from superstorm Sandy. 
One of those projects helped Margarita Caicedo, 81, remain in her Amityville home after Sandy destroyed the basement, and she fell and hurt herself. 
Volunteers built a new stairway between the first and second floors, moved her washing machine and dryer next to the kitchen and installed insulation under the living room floor, among other repairs. 
"They helped me very much, physically and mentally," said Caicedo, who was referred to Rebuilding Together by Catholic Charities. "They saw the things I would need the most to repair. I am very grateful for the help I got, and they did it in one week." 
Funding for the group's projects comes from banks, businesses, service organizations, churches, foundations and individuals. Some materials, such as lumber, nails, drill bits and saws, are donated or sold to the nonprofit at a discount. Since the end of 2013, the American Red Cross has pledged $538,000 and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul $415,000 for Sandy-related repairs. 
Clients apply on their own and are also referred by social services agencies such as Catholic Charities, the Suffolk County Department for the Aging and veterans and seniors groups. 
Rebuilding Together provides carpentry, painting, plumbing, weather stripping, wall repair and locksmithing services, but the most-frequent request for the Long Island chapter is wheelchair ramps. 
&nbsp; 
Wheelchair ramps are lifelines 
When Stanley Jawor fell and broke his hip in April and was discharged from rehab after a six-week stay, the former U.S. Army Air Corps sergeant needed a wheelchair ramp ASAP. 
To keep doctors' appointments, leaving the home in Central Islip that Jawor, 96, shares with his daughter and son-in-law, Suzanne and John Lafferty, required that he be lifted up in his wheelchair, which was also very difficult to push, Suzanne Lafferty said. 
The routine soon became taxing for the couple, who are in their 60s and couldn't afford a wheelchair ramp. 
Acting on a referral, John Lafferty called the local Rebuilding Together office, located in Farmingdale. In May, a wooden ramp, 7 feet long and 3 feet wide, was installed. 
"It was finished in a day," Lafferty, a former U.S. Army sergeant, recalled. "There were about 12 people there; they were all veterans, and they all came to help. It was unbelievable. . . . It made our lives a lot easier." 
It took slightly longer — two days — for Rebuilding Together to construct a wheelchair ramp for Maria Silkie, 87, of East Meadow. She was a cancer survivor, a dialysis patient and had a pacemaker. Silkie died this past summer, said her son Joe, of Patchogue, but the ramp did not go unused. 
"She used it for two months before she died, but she was very grateful for what they did," he said. "They were angels, a godsend." 
From its beginning, the local chapter of Rebuilding Together has operated year-round, setting a trend for other affiliates. Until a year ago, when it opened the Farmingdale office, the nonprofit was based out of Goldstein's home, a library and a church to save on rent, which the national office now supports. 
Ellis, 75, of Islip, is in charge of day-to-day operations. He joined Rebuilding Together in 2008 after holding the same position at the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Bethpage, which runs thrift stores that benefit the needy. 
He is responsible for deciding which applicants get assistance. To be eligible, they must own their home or live with a family member who owns the home, and meet financial and other eligibility requirements. Clients' average family income is $29,000. Many have lived in their homes for 30 to 50 years, and many are widows, Ellis said. 
"We can do all the work we get money for," Ellis said. "It's a wonderful way to live a life. I intend to stay with it as long as I can." 
When people apply for help, their information is taken and is emailed to a home visitor, who will later go to the home and assess the work needed. If Ellis approves the project, he sends it off to Botkin, who serves as project manager and assigns a team captain and crew selected from a roster of volunteers with skills for the work. 
Volunteers Larry Rath and Charlie Ferrante, both of Massapequa, enjoy building the ramps. 
"It's always rewarding when we finish a job and the client comes out of their home for the first time in months," said Rath, 56, a Verizon retiree and Rebuilding Together team captain. "You get to see them ride down their ramp into their front or backyard. So we work with smiles and hearts." 
Botkin can vouch for that. 
"When a client who got a ramp says, 'I haven't been out of my house in three years,' there are tears in their eyes, and they're very appreciative," he said. "It's worth all the money in the world. We like to help people, but we're helping ourselves." 
They have also built ramps to help autistic children mount horses for therapy. 
 Eager volunteers 
Goldstein makes presentations at health fairs and senior centers and seeks donations of money and materials. He praises the Rebuilding Together volunteers, most of whom are in their 60s, retired and are often recruited by word-of-mouth. 
"With more than 250 volunteers, we can't use all of them all the time, so somebody will call saying, 'You haven't called me in a month, don't you need me anymore?' They're dependable and dedicated." 
The same can be said of John Irwin, 64, president of Irwin Contracting in Hauppauge. He and Rebuilding Together formed a partnership after superstorm Sandy, donating labor and materials to repair East Rockaway High School, the Suffolk County United Veterans Home in Middle Island and 12 houses. Irwin was recently honored at Rebuilding Together's annual fundraiser. 
"I do help them from time to time," Irwin said. "I'm hoping to do more down the line with them. It's a very good cause." 
Next month, the local chapter is scheduled to join volunteers from the national Rebuilding Together office, Catholic Charities, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and others to paint the new, elevated shell of John and Cathy Fallon's Babylon home, which had to be demolished after Sandy struck. It is the last of 28 that Rebuilding Together Long Island rehabilitated with Red Cross funds. 
It is because of Sandy that Laura Heffernan, 43, of East Islip, volunteers with Rebuilding Together. 
"I like the fact that you go in one day and start with nothing, and at the end of the day you have a finished product," she said. 
&nbsp; 
VOLUNTEER WITH REBUILDING TOGETHER LONG ISLAND 
Rebuilding Together Long Island is looking for volunteers with a "willingness to work and be happy in a joyous atmosphere," said Sol Goldstein, president of the local chapter. 
Anyone 18 and older, with or without special skills, can volunteer for projects or help organize, inventory and maintain materials and supplies. Volunteers also are needed to pick up donated construction materials, assist with public relations and marketing and offer web design and graphic design skills. 
Donors can also sponsor a project. "We have projects ongoing; the need is funding," Goldstein said. 
To learn more, contact Rebuilding Together Long Island at 631-777-7894, or fill out an application form at <a href="http://rebuildingtogetherlongisland.org">rebuildingtogetherlongisland.org</a>. 
&nbsp; 
OTHER VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES 
Lindenhurst residents Jen Mackie Aulino, Cristina Galante and Victoria Witchie-Boye founded the Lindenhurst-based nonprofit Adopt A House in the wake of superstorm Sandy in 2012. Since then, the group has spent $162,000 on new furniture, kitchen appliances, mini grants to pay off storm-related debts and provide other relief for affected families. It has also gutted houses, supplied 500 trees to replace landscaping and held workshops on house lifting, mold remediation and insurance claims. 
"We're very active in the community," said Michele Insinga, the nonprofit's executive director and also a Lindenhurst resident. "We're looking for big donors. We definitely want to continue the mission. There are 700 families registered with us. We go from Sayville to Long Beach." 
Contact: 631-867-2401; <a href="http://adoptahouse.org">adoptahouse.org</a>; or email Info@Adoptahouse.org. 
*** 
The Centereach-based Community Development Corporation of Long Island offers repair services, but in most cases there is a cost for them. The nonprofit has a deferred lien program for clients of modest means, depending on family size and income guidelines, and it also provides a loan option with below-market interest rates. 
Contact: 631-471-1215; <a href="http://cdcli.org">cdcli.org</a> 
*** 
For more volunteer information and opportunities, contact the Long Island Volunteer Center at 516-564-5482; <a href="http://longislandvolunteercenter.org">longislandvolunteercenter.org</a>

LI Life

LFCOV26

Rebuilding Together Long Island provides free home repairs to low-income families

Rebuilding Together - CROPPED

Ricardo Alvarado was feeling about as low as the flier he found on the street near Wyandanch Memorial High School two years ago. 
"I never saw anything in me," Alvarado, now 16 and a sophomore, recalled of his self-esteem at the time. 
The flier was an invitation to train with the school's track team. Alvarado showed up and ran what he felt certain was the slowest time of the day in front of a bunch of upperclassmen. 
He may have braced himself for criticism and ridicule, but neither came. Instead, the team cheered him, surrounding him to offer praise and accept him. 
Mama T's "gentlemen" were doing her proud. 
That's what Patricia Taylor calls her young male charges, who named her Mama T a couple of years ago. Seeing the positive is part of Taylor's nature, and it's a necessity on Mama T's track. Taylor is one of the only women on Long Island who coaches a boys team, and the name fits. 
Drink some water straight from the cooler and Mama T will catch you. If you walk away from her and she's not sure you got the message, there's a good chance you'll be summoned back. She'll point her index and middle fingers toward her eyes and reinforce the previous message with, "You got me?" 
This is Taylor's 10th year as coach at Wyandanch, where she also is a teaching assistant for special-education students. She runs a tight ship but is a steadying presence for her runners, jumpers and throwers, who last year numbered 60. The memory of how she got her nickname still elicits a laugh. 
"How come you're everybody's mama?" Taylor recalled being asked by Austin Christie and Damon Daniels, two former team members. 
The answer is because they allow her to be. That's clear when you stand on the Wyandanch track and notice that Taylor, a resident of Bay Shore, doesn't go hug her squad nearly as much as they come up to her for hugs. 
&nbsp; 
An athlete herself 
Taylor is among a handful of other women who coach boys teams on Long Island. At Wantagh High School, Lisa Fugazzi coaches the volleyball team; Russi Villata coaches the volleyball team at John F. Kennedy High School in Plainview; and Dawn Vallone coaches the boys bowling team at Bay Shore High School. 
Taylor is no stranger to the track. In the late 1970s she was on the girls team at Bay Shore High School, where she specialized in the long jump and the high jump, and also played on the soccer team. She graduated in 1980 with a good GPA and a healthy disdain for negative reinforcement. She was in line for a college soccer scholarship but really wanted a scholarship to run track, so she sought out an educator at the high school for guidance about what to do. According to Taylor, he looked at her 3.4 GPA and told her that someone of her race couldn't earn grades like that. 
Taylor ended up attending the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury without a track scholarship but still ran on the team. Years later, she coached the daughter of the high school educator who questioned her academic aptitude and reports it was a pleasant experience. 
Taylor loves to coach. She enjoys it so much, she said, that she wasn't deterred when she got to Commack High School to help coach girls track while still competing at NYIT and was met with a racial slur from one of the students. 
Racism hasn't been Taylor's only challenge over the years. She would go on to be the head coach of the combined boys and girls track teams at Bellport Middle School, then worked as an assistant at the high school. She left education in 1998 over a difference in coaching styles, she said, and returned in 2000, first as a substitute teacher and then as a teaching assistant at Milton L. Olive Middle School in Wyandanch, which is next to the high school. 
She stopped teaching in 2002 after being diagnosed with stomach cancer. She returned in 2004, about the time Wyandanch needed a track coach. 
People were unfamiliar with Taylor's track past, but the athletic director at the time knew Taylor from their days at Olive Middle School — where he had been the wrestling coach — and remembered the rapport she had with the students there. 
He took a chance on her and Taylor made him a promise. 
"If you give me five years, I will make a name for the Wyandanch boys track team," she vowed. 
In her first year as coach, two of Taylor's runners earned all-league honors, and by 2006, she had her first state champion, Craig Slaughter, who won the 200 meters. 
Despite those accomplishments, challenges remain. Budget constraints make Wyandanch — whose mascot is the Warrior — the only school on Long Island without a two- or three-season team. It has an outdoor track team in the spring but no cross country in the fall or winter indoor season. So, in the offseasons, Taylor keeps her athletes in shape and hyped up for when track season comes around. 
She's not the only one keeping the team on track. During a recent practice session, Taylor's assistant coach, Jim Veneroni, and volunteer coach Evette James looked on as football players who also run track talked about the influence of Taylor's mentoring. 
James has been a special-education teacher at Wyandanch High for 17 years. She is also the special-education coordinator at the high school, whose graduation rate is one of the lowest on Long Island, according to Newsday's 2012-13 database. 
As Alvarado, who is an 800-meter runner, and some of his teammates talked about being down on themselves before joining the track team, James listened and understood, because she once walked the same halls. The revelation to new students never fails to inspire shock and awe. 
"Oh, you graduated from here?" they say with a look of amazement. 
"It's hard to leave all of that, that Wyandanch cloud," James said. "They look for anything to lift them up from that." 
And Mama T will look for them. A lunch period can instantly morph into shot-put tryouts as Taylor seeks new talent. 
In Malik Jones' case, she saw him running next to the school's track on 32nd Street when he was a student at Olive Middle School — students there train with those at the high school — and started recruiting him. 
She made a deal with Jones when he was in ninth grade: Come try track for one week, and if you don't like it, you don't have to come back. Jones, who is 18 and a senior, did like it and is a 400-meter runner on the team. 
"Every moment is the best moment," Jones said. "You should cherish it because you may not get it again." 
It seems Taylor doesn't pass up a chance to keep track on her squad's radar. 
"There's not once when I see her in school that she doesn't come up to me and say, 'Are you ready for track today? Are you ready for track today?' " said senior Jose Flores, 17. 
Enthusiasm is more of a prerequisite than speed, as Taylor repeated one of her rallying cries to the teens. 
"If I'm showing more passion than everybody else, someone's got to go, and it's not going to be me," Taylor said, adding that, unlike NBA star LeBron James, she's not "taking her talents" anywhere else. 
That's fine with Wyandanch principal Paul Sibblies. 
"Ms. Taylor has been one of the most motivated, passionate, motherly individuals you'll find in this community," he said. "She goes far beyond her duties as an educator." 
Sibblies knows that Taylor will pull an athlete off the track if he doesn't meet her standards of conduct and classroom performance. But he adds that the students appreciate the mentoring and view Taylor as a mother figure, which is especially helpful when they have a personal issue at home that could affect learning. Taylor has guided them through those issues, Sibblies said, then sat with them to help complete college essays and apply for financial aid. 
&nbsp; 
More than 100 percent 
Taylor starts talking about taking her 1994 Ford van and then her 1999 Chevy van to drive students to USA Track &amp; Field Long Island events in the fall and winter. Without indoor track and cross country, they're the only options to allow some of those on her team to compete during those seasons, and she often dips into her own pocket to make it possible. 
Taylor credits fundraising efforts by the school to pay for things like food on road trips, but first-year Wyandanch school district athletic director Tom Williams said Taylor shoulders much of the expense. 
"I can't thank her enough," Williams said. "And the kids thank her by doing the right thing. That's what every coach wants." 
It's true for Edgar Zelaya, 17, who said he had a bad reputation before falling under Taylor's wing. 
"She's like a second mother," said Zelaya, whose events are the shot put and discus. "She's always told me to do good, never give people a hard time. I've been a different Edgar." 
Taylor doesn't think much about coaching boys instead of girls, but she admits she can be a little more gruff with the guys. 
"I let them know it's out of love," Taylor said. 
The team once tried to reciprocate the feeling. The idea was for them to treat her to Applebee's for dinner — until they saw the bill. Once again, Taylor didn't mind helping her guys out since they were trying to do the right thing. 
"They're my gentlemen," Taylor said. "And I'll always call them my gentlemen." 
&nbsp; 
HELPING HER 'GENTLEMEN' STAND OUT 
For the past few years Patricia Taylor, boys track coach at Wyandanch Memorial High School, has taken some of her top athletes in April to the prestigious Penn Relays in Philadelphia. 
Wyandanch's school colors are green and white. But when they go to Penn, Taylor lets her athletes celebrate their hard work in part by putting them in warm-up attire that is attention-getting, to say the least. One year it was neon orange shirts and shorts. 
"They stood out," Taylor said proudly. 
There was a more conservative selection another year — gray and blue — but for the 2015 meet, the team is already talking about lime green and yellow. 
"That's what they want," Taylor said. "They take pictures and show them to me, and there I go" to buy them. 
 CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, the team that Dawn Vallone coaches was incorrect.

LFCOV19

Wyandanch High School boys track coach teaches respect, self-esteem

lfCOV19TAYLORjcw - CROPPED

Few things are the subjects of as much planning as the birth of a child. From painting the nursery to picking a name to packing the "go" bag, expectant parents think of little else but being ready when the time comes. 
Sometimes, however, the little bundles of joy seem to have plans of their own, and they don't always sync up with those made by the grown-ups. When labor takes minutes instead of hours and the baby arrives before Mom can get to the hospital, it falls to emergency responders to greet the new arrival. 
That's happened dozens of times over the years on Long Island, with Newsday and other local media recounting births at home and on the sides of just about every parkway, expressway and highway in the area. If you've ever wondered what happened to some of those newborns, keep reading to find out. 
 But he's not a couch potato 
Doreen Vaccaro never forgot how police and EMTs from the Nassau County Police Department delivered her son, Andrew, on June 29, 1993. The baby was four days past his due date. When the time came before dawn, it came quickly; Vaccaro realized she wouldn't make it to North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset in time. 
Police were called and responded within minutes to the family's home in Franklin Square. Andrew was born on the couch, delivered by then-patrolman Thomas Flynn and ambulance medical technician Michael Romano, now deceased. 
This past summer, Vaccaro, 53, arranged a surprise gift for her son's 21st birthday: lunch with now-Sgt. Flynn. 
"I wanted to do something different and nice," Vaccaro said, so a meeting was set up at Nassau County District Court in Hempstead. "The officer [Flynn] met us at the door. He said something like, 'You must wonder why you're here.' Andrew said, 'I think I know now.' " 
It didn't take him long to connect the face to some of the newspaper articles his mother had saved marking his entry into the world. 
"It was really cool to meet him and talk to him," Andrew said. "I think the best part about it was that when I was talking to him, he was so interested in my life and everything I was doing, 21 years after he delivered me." 
Flynn said he was glad to be remembered and was touched by the opportunity to meet Andrew, a senior at Binghamton University majoring in political science. 
"It was nice of them to think of me," he said. "They really have a great kid." 
In some ways, Andrew's eagerness to be born is reflective of his personality. 
"He's a very goal-driven person," his mother said. "He was an easy baby, actually. How he was born is how he lives his life — he's an early riser and a go-getter." 
The reunion seemed destined, though, by a card Flynn sent to the family, which now lives in Lake Grove, when Andrew turned 1. Vaccaro brought it with her, and it read: 
"Let's do it again sometime — just not at 4 in the morning." 
Out-of-hospital births in the United States are extremely rare — fewer than 2 percent of the nation's 3.9 million annual births — according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Neither the CDC nor the state Health Department keeps track of how many of those are planned home births and how many are emergencies, but North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, which covers most of Long Island, sees only a few emergency births each year, officials said. 
"We probably see it once every three or four months," said Dr. Adiel Fleischer, executive director of obstetrics and gynecology at North Shore-LIJ, whose hospitals deliver nearly 7,000 babies a year. 
On such occasions, police are often the first to respond. Flynn recalled the sudden urgency during an otherwise quiet overnight shift. 
"To get that call at 4 o'clock in the morning is certainly an eye-opener," he said. "Any kind of call with childbirth gets my heart racing." 
&nbsp; 
A call she'll never forget 
Sgt. Colleen Cooney knows the feeling. She's a public information officer in the commissioner's office at the Suffolk County Police Department, but for many of her 23 years with the department, she was a patrol officer. She has assisted four emergency births. 
The mother of three vividly recalls the first time she responded to an unplanned home birth. 
"It's very exciting for a person like me, who is there as a first responder, to be involved in that experience," Cooney said. "We tried to remain professional and calm everyone down. But what I wasn't prepared for was the vocalizing of the woman giving birth, when you walk in and hear someone screaming. The father was like a second patient for us, because this was not what they planned. It's not what anyone plans. 
"We mainly pray that there are no complications," she added. "Your mind the whole time is thinking, 'Please let this baby breathe. Please let everything be OK once the baby is born.' " 
Everything was OK and Cooney called in three words: It's a boy. 
"And then you could hear all the other cops clicking their radios as if they were applauding," Cooney said. "It was almost like I was given a gift, because I was included in that very special, very intimate moment." 
As stressful as it may be to face giving birth at home, it's even worse out on the road, at rush hour on a winter morning. 
Regina Daniels-Jacoff, 36, was at home in Farmingdale on Feb. 10. Her husband, Andrew Jacoff, 39, was at work; the couple are correction officers at Rikers Island. 
Just a week before, Daniels-Jacoff's doctor said she seemed to have plenty of time; she was only in her 37th week. But daughter Camille, 7, had been an early arrival. "We barely made it with her, too," Daniels-Jacoff recalled with a laugh. 
The contractions began around 7:30 a.m. and were soon coming quickly. Andrew's father, Edward Jacoff, of Massapequa Park, rushed to the house. Camille went to a neighbor's house and Daniels- Jacoff and her father-in-law set out for South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside. 
They were soon caught in traffic on Sunrise Highway, and it became clear they wouldn't reach the delivery room in time. Daniels-Jacoff told her father-in-law he would need to call an ambulance. " 'I'm not going to make it, he's on his way,' " she said she told him. 
The ambulance soon arrived just before "The Bellmores Welcome You" sign on Sunrise, and Nassau County Police ambulance medical technicians Matthew Field and John Episcopo rushed her inside. 
"As soon as they put me in the ambulance and got my clothes off, he just came flying out," Daniels-Jacoff said. Baby Aaron arrived at 9:38 a.m. He will soon be 8 months old, and his mom reports that he "already knows what he wants. Since he was born fast, he does do things fast — he's already full-on crawling. He's moving so fast; it's hard to see him growing up so soon." 
Daniels-Jacoff said her son loves people and smiles at everybody, but like his birth, waiting doesn't come easy to him. "He's very impatient," Daniels-Jacoff said. "If he sees his bottle, he's got to have it right now." 
&nbsp; 
From shopping to birthing 
Even couples who have experienced childbirth many times are sometimes caught by surprise. In December 2013, Karen Hollander, now 41, went from expectant mother shopping at Babies R Us in Westbury to giving birth in a Nassau Police ambulance in less than half an hour. Daughter Alexandra is her fifth child. 
"It was quite a surprise," said Hollander, a high school math teacher who lived in Great Neck at the time. "We've never had a quick delivery like that." 
Hollander, who lives with her family — husband Roger, 44, and sons Eitan, 13, Ori, 8, Adam, 6, and Elad, 3 — in Austin, Texas, said she told her obstetrician she suspected an early delivery because she had been feeling contractions, but the doctor thought it unlikely. 
On Christmas Eve, as Hollander shopped for a stroller and car seat, she went into labor. She headed for the car and called her husband with the news. 
"You should probably come here right now," she told him. Soon after, she called again: "You're never going to make it," she said. 
They arranged to meet at Community Drive and the Long Island Expressway service road, but Karen passed the meeting point before her husband arrived and headed up Lakeville Road. When she realized she couldn't go on, she pulled into a Bank of America parking lot and called 911. The ambulance picked her up and headed for the hospital but pulled over at the corner of Northern Boulevard and Community Drive, where Karen gave birth. 
Roger, now at the meeting spot, began calling his wife. On his ninth or 10th attempt, a police officer answered and told him to go to the hospital. 
"I walked a few feet, turned the corner and saw Karen in a triage room, holding the baby and basically in shock with about 50 people around her, and I almost fainted on the spot," he recalled. 
Roger Hollander credited the Nassau police and EMS responders with the happy outcome. "It was incredibly fun and fantastic, and I don't think it's something we would want to repeat," he said. 
Hollander sent a cellphone picture to her parents, Varga and Ilan Reizes, then of Forest Hills and who now live in Las Vegas. Her father saw it first and called her mother, who could scarcely believe what she heard. 
"What are you talking about?" Hollander quoted her mother saying. "I talked to her 20 minutes ago and she was shopping." 
Alexandra will be a year old in a few months and is a "great baby," her mother said. 
"She's very sweet," Hollander added. "She's not a great eater and not a great sleeper, but she's extremely happy, and everyone that sees her always remarks how bright-eyed she is and how smart she seems. She's too busy to sleep. She has too many things she wants to do." 
An out-of-hospital birth may unnerve parents, but it serves as a source of amusement for siblings. 
Regina Daniels-Jacoff said her daughter, Camille, gets a kick out of reminding her baby brother of his birthplace whenever they pass that fateful spot on Sunrise Highway. 
"Aaron, look where you were born." 
 TRAINING IN MATTERS OF LIFE AND BREATH 
An unplanned birth outside a hospital poses a few basic risks for the baby and the mother, said Dr. Adiel Fleischer, executive director of obstetrics and gynecology at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System. 
For the child, it's essential to begin the breathing process. Emergency responders may need to clear the baby's mouth, nose or throat of mucus, Fleischer said. 
"Sometimes the baby starts breathing spontaneously without help, but often the baby needs some help clearing the mouth and nostrils of mucus," he said. "These first few seconds of life are critical, and we're concerned, if there is nobody with some skills to do that, the newborn may suffer because of lack of oxygen." 
The big risk to the mother is hemorrhage. "It doesn't happen often, but it happens often enough that we as health professionals have a number of procedures we can do to stop the mother from bleeding," Fleischer said. "They can be accomplished relatively easily, but again, they have to be done by somebody with some knowledge." 
Naturally, emergency medical technicians have more extensive training, but police officers do learn the basics of emergency medical care, said Sgt. Colleen Cooney, a public information officer for the Suffolk County Police Department. 
"The police academy trains all of its officers on emergency medical procedures, and as part of that training there is training on births," Cooney said. "We're trained in CPR and administering oxygen and ancillary skills we may need, but the actual delivering of a baby — that's hard to simulate in the classroom environment. 
"We do have a threshold for where we transport or don't transport," she added. "If she starts to express the feeling that she wants to push or she feels wet, or if we see any discharge or the head crowning, those are things that tell us we're going to stay and have the baby here."

LFCOV05

Fast-arriving LI babies and the emergency responders who welcomed them into the world

lfCOV05_SpecialBirth-Jacoff

It’s been more than 20 years since Suheil Aghabi was paralyzed in a car accident only blocks from his West Hempstead home. The 42-year-old actor, known professionally as Gabriel Cordell, now lives in California but plans to come home this June by pushing his wheelchair 3,300 miles across the country. 
 Aghabi will leave Burbank on April 1 and roll his chair through 15 states, finishing on June 10 at his alma mater, West Hempstead High School. The 1988 graduate’s goal is to complete the trip within 70 days. 
 “I don’t know if i can physically do this, but mentally, I’m ready, so I have to take the leap,” he said. 
 If all goes according to plan, he’ll be able to attend his 25-year high school reunion four days after his arrival. When his former classmates heard of Aghabi’s venture, they decided to move the reunion up from later this summer to June 14 to coincide with his arrival. 
 “It’s not like there is enough pressure,” Aghabi joked. 
 To prepare for this epic journey, Aghabi has been lifting weights at his local YMCA in Burbank and pushing his chair around the track at a nearby high school and up steep hills in his neighborhood, averaging 20 to 30 miles each day. The training is exhausting and painful. 
 “I have arthritis, so just waking up in the morning hurts,” said Aghabi, who says he refuses to take even over-the-counter pills to deal with his aches after overcoming a 3 ½-year battle with cocaine abuse last year. 
 “If I’m in pain, that means I’m alive,” he added. “I’ve been numb for so long that pain, to me, is life.” 
 Aghabi will not be making his cross-country trek alone. His “right-hand man,” 21-year-old nephew Christopher Kawas, will be joining him along with a documentary film crew that will capture it all. 
 “He's got a big heart and when he puts his mind to something he usually gets it done,” Kawas said of his uncle. “It's going to be a rough, rough couple of months, but I’ll be there for him, and I’ll help make sure he makes it across.” 
 Filmmaker Lisa France signed on to direct and produce the documentary only weeks ago after getting to know Aghabi and his parents. 
 “The very first time I met Gabe, he wouldn’t park in a handicap parking spot,” she recalled. “Every single person he meets, he touches them. He’s inspiring.” 
 Aghabi is educating people about the project and raising funds for the trip through a trailer that France created for the project, which can be viewed at <a href="http://rollwithme.org">rollwithme.org</a>. 
 As the video spreads around the web, it’s helping to raise much-needed funds for the trip. So far, Aghabi has received more than $17,000 in donations, including a $10,000 sponsorship from Mitchell Joseph, CEO of beverage company West Coast Chill. 
 The contributions have been pouring in from friends, families and complete strangers, many who have stumbled upon Aghabi’s website through social media. One man from Massachusetts donated $50 in memory of Allison Wyatt, one of the students killed in the Sandy Hook shooting. Another Massachusetts resident, Sue B. Zimmerman, not only made a donation but has been providing her social media services pro bono. She’s currently in the process of designing a “Roll with Me” app so mobile users can track Aghabi’s journey from their phones. 
 “She is an angel,” France said. “Since she came aboard... we have received another $2,000.” 
 Aghabi also received a custom-built wheelchair from manufacturer Sunrise Medical, but he still needs to raise enough money to rent an RV so he and his crew have a place to sleep, shower and prepare meals. He’ll also need a follow car and money to pay for the vehicles’ fuel, equipment and food for six people for more than two months. Aghabi is planning a fundraiser in California on March 15. His friend, Mike Schultz, of Baldwin Harbor, is having another in Long Island on April 6 from 6-10 p.m. at Stinger’s Irish Pub in Rockville Centre, after Aghabi begins his trek. They need to raise roughly $200,000 for the trip. 
 “We’re going on the road, whether we get another penny or not,” Aghabi said. If he makes more than he needs, he plans to donate the rest to charity, adding, “I’m not looking to make a dime out of this because my life is going to be so rich afterward.” 
 Aghabi hopes his journey will inspire children and adults with physical disabilities, as well as struggling addicts. He wants them to see that “there are people all over the world with broken bodies, but they are productive to society because their mind is so strong … When I will myself to do something, I do it.” &nbsp; 
 <iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FbDuQikKkIA" width="490"></iframe>

News

LIer to push his wheelchair across country

Paralyzed West Hempstead native to push wheelchair from California to New York

hlXCOUNTRY06

Rick Spellman never had to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation in 12 years as a lifeguard at Jones Beach’s Field 4. 
 But when a day of golf in early September at Eisenhower Park turned into a frantic race to save one woman’s life, Spellman was ready. 
 After noticing a woman lying unresponsive on the golf course, Spellman dropped his golf clubs, raced to her side and began performing chest compressions. 
 Spellman used his past lifeguarding skills to perform CPR on Margaret Savarese, 77, of&nbsp; Massapequa, who had collapsed after she had a heart attack. 
 “It was so ingrained in my mind,” Spellman said of his training Thursday. “I never forgot how to. I guess it’s just in me.” 
 The former Jones Beach lifeguard was playing on the eighth hole of the Blue Course at the East Meadow golf course with his father, Fred Spellman, when he saw Savarese. 
 “It was like divine intervention because I almost didn’t go golfing that day,” said Spellman, 39, of Manhasset. “I did all that I could. I would have wanted someone to do that for my mother or family member. You just don’t sit around and watch. You have to do something.” 
 Spellman, now a lighting fixtures salesman in North Amityville, began pumping Savarese's chest and alternately breathing into her mouth, while her golf partners Joan Aspromante and Loretta Limanni contacted first responders. 
 Aspromante said when her friend first fell, she thought Savarese was joking, or had simply lost her balance. 
 “I saw the expression on her face and immediately dialed 911,” she said. “We kept saying, over and over again for at least 10 minutes, ‘Please Marge, stay with us.’ ” 
 Savarese had temporary memory loss while recovering at the Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, but her friends and Spellman explained to her what had happened. 
 She also later learned that her heart had stopped three times, and if Spellman hadn’t rushed over when he did that she may not have survived. 
 Spellman and Savarese were reunited for the first time since the lifesaving event when the North Hempstead Town Board honored Spellman with a certificate of appreciation at a Dec. 5 Town Hall meeting. Supervisor Jon Kaiman also gave both Spellman and Savarese a free round of golf at Harbor Links Golf Course in Port Washington. 
 But that’s far from the best gift she’s gotten this holiday season. 
 “I keep saying that he’s my guardian angel,” Savarese said. “People have even been giving me angel statues and ornaments for Christmas. I owe this man my life. Thank God he was there.” 
 Photo: Rick Spellman, 39, of Manhasset, with Margaret Savarese, 77, of Massapequa. (Dec. 27, 2012)

LIer saves woman’s life on golf course

hlGOLF14--cropped

As <a href="/topics//University_of_Miami">the U</a>.S. flag flew at half-staff behind her to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, Shelby Pickerell was all smiles about the Navy ROTC accolades that lay before her. 
 Pickerell, 16, a senior at <a href="/topics//Southold,_NY">Southold</a> Junior-Senior High School, had an idea she was receiving the Legion of Valor Bronze Cross for Achievement medal. It is given annually to 20 cadets worldwide who signify the best leadership in the naval ROTC program, which this year totals about 88,000 cadets. 
 But she teared up when Navy recruiting district officer John Skarin awarded her a $180,000 scholarship from the Navy, which was a surprise and is one of only a few awarded. Another medal and scholarship also went to two other <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a> students. 
 "It's very symbolic," Pickerell said of receiving the two honors on the 11th anniversary of the attacks. "It shows that <a href="/topics//University_of_Miami">the U</a>.S. is still going strong." 
 Pickerell, whose first choice of colleges is <a href="/topics//Stanford_University">Stanford University</a>, was surrounded by her fellow cadets, who were in formation on the school's front lawn to honor those lost on 9/11. Her mother, Sherry, and grandparents Diane and Howard Pickerell were also there. 
 The only other winner of the Legion of Valor medal in the region -- which includes <a href="/topics//Delaware">Delaware</a>, <a href="/topics//New_Jersey">New Jersey</a>, <a href="/topics//Pennsylvania">Pennsylvania</a>, <a href="/topics//Connecticut">Connecticut</a>, <a href="/topics//New_Hampshire">New Hampshire</a>, <a href="/topics//Massachusetts">Massachusetts</a> and <a href="/topics//Maine">Maine</a> -- is also from <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> County. Jeffrey Gao, 17, who attends <a href="/topics//William_Floyd">William Floyd</a> High School in <a href="/topics//Mastic_Beach,_NY">Mastic Beach</a>, was told about the award Tuesday by Jay Tweed, the school's commanding officer. 
 He was inspired to join the corps as a youngster. 
 "I was a little kid watching the Christmas parade in my town," Gao said, "and I saw the ROTC kids marching down the avenue, and I thought it was cool. And it's more than I expected." 
 Gao, of <a href="/topics//Shirley,_NY">Shirley</a>, will officially receive the medal, which is also based on academic achievement and community service, at a November ceremony. 
 "He is an outstanding cadet, and there is no doubt in my mind that he will achieve bigger and better things as time goes on," Tweed said. 
 Harold Hubbard, 17, got a hint something special was going on Tuesday when a fellow cadet at Riverhead High School told him his parents were in the library. 
 A few minutes later, Hubbard learned that he, too, would receive a $180,000 scholarship, news that meant he no longer needed his part-time job to raise money for textbooks. 
 Hubbard said he plans to study aeronautical engineering. Boston University is his first choice, but he is considering Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida. 
 "I'd love to be a pilot," said Hubbard, whose parents and sister were at the ceremony. "I want to understand how it works before I get into the thing." 
 &nbsp; 
<h3> Global learning</h3> 
 &nbsp; 
 The ROTC program is conducted in high schools across the globe and includes the Army and Air Force 
 ROTC -- Reserve Officers' Training Corps -- Emphasizes citizenship, leadership and understanding of the country's maritime heritage 
 Classroom instruction takes place throughout the year, and includes basic knowledge of naval operations

TOAWAR13

3 ROTC cadets from LI win rare honors

toAWAR13 - shelby pickerell - crop

Postal worker Mario Serrano took note of a peculiar scene Monday at a home on his <a href="/topics//Garden_City,_NY">Garden City</a> route -- Saturday's mail still by the door, the gurgling of running water and a little murmuring. 
 "It sounded like someone was taking a shower and singing," Serrano recalled Tuesday, describing what prompted the rescue of an injured woman. 
 The scene bothered the longtime mail carrier as he continued on his rounds about 3 p.m., so he circled back a few minutes later to the 87-year-old woman's St. Pauls Crescent home. 
 He then realized what he thought was singing was someone moaning "Help me, help me." So Serrano pushed open the bathroom window and called out the woman's name. "Who's that?" she answered. 
 "It's Mario, your mailman." 
 That's how Serrano delivered not just the mail but help, saving the woman who had slipped, injuring her hip, and remained stuck between a toilet and bathtub since Saturday, said <a href="/topics//Garden_City,_NY">Garden City</a> police and the U.S. Postal Service. 
 "The lady was the hero," Serrano, 53, of <a href="/topics//West_Hempstead,_NY">West Hempstead</a>, said Tuesday. "She was in the bathroom for days and survived. She had the will to live." 
 <a href="/topics//Garden_City,_NY">Garden City</a> Postmaster Annette D'Amato thinks Serrano, a 27-year employee, is a hero, too. She's nominating him for an award given to employees who excel in a variety of ways. 
 After Serrano alerted police, the toilet was removed to free the woman, said acting Garden City Police Commissioner Kenneth Jackson. 
 The woman had a hip injury, but police did not know if she had any other injuries as a result of her ordeal. 
 Laura Tarr, who lives nearby, said she visited the woman on Friday, before she fell, and she seemed fine. "She's a wonderful neighbor," Tarr said. Tarr said she felt awful after hearing that her neighbor, who walks with a cane, was stuck for two days. "She's lucid, so she must have known she was trapped for the two days," she said. 
 Serrano said his own mother is 87 and he only did what he hopes others might do in a similar situation. Serrano has worked his Garden City route for seven years and he's been a popular mail carrier, even before he delivered help. 
 His actions didn't surprise the woman's neighbors. "He knows your name, and your children's name," Tarr said. "You tell him you're going on vacation and he says 'OK, I'll keep an eye on things.' " Another neighbor, Dr. Michael Ferragamo, said that once police arrived, Serrano didn't stick around. 
 He just went back to delivering mail. 
 With Gary Dymski

Nassau

LIMAIL01

Mail carrier: Trapped woman is the 'hero'

liRESCUEhs

Brian Maher's artificial leg once fell off at the tee. 
 <a href="/topics/John_Devine">John Devine</a> hit a hole-in-one from 190 yards years ago that he still counts as one of the single most exhilarating moments of his life. 
 Just Sunday morning, Kenny Bontz strapped on his prosthetic leg at the driving range and basked in the shock of able-bodied golfers as he banged ball after ball after ball down the middle. 
 Such are the trials and joys of amputee golf. The field was 25 men Sunday at the 23rd <a href="/topics/Long_Island%2C_NY">Long Island</a> Amputee Classic, and Bontz won it with a 2-over-par 72 on the Red Course at <a href="/topics/Bethpage%2C_NY">Bethpage State Park</a>. 
 He is 42, a landscape company owner from <a href="/topics/Farmingdale%2C_NY">Farmingdale</a>, N.J., who decided six years ago to have his cancer-ridden left leg amputated above the knee. 
 "Best decision I ever made," he said Sunday. 
 He was an even-par golfer before the operation and he is again now; the difference is, he's free of pain and the painkillers on which he'd come to depend. The new, improved Bontz said he has learned to take nothing for granted. He has learned to enjoy the scenery and small-talk with the rest of his foursome on a good sunny day. But he hasn't gone New Age-y. "We don't come here to play for second," he said, in all seriousness, somewhere around the seventh hole and still on par. 
 There were men Sunday who'd lost legs to disease, war, helicopter crashes and car crashes. Monday a triple amputee who lost limbs to fire is expected to compete in the team event. 
 Golf on prosthetic legs is probably harder than golf on natural legs, the players agreed. The old models would buckle on a vigorous follow-through, which is what happened to Maher. Even the most sophisticated modern prostheses can hamper a swing's coil and snap, or play awkwardly on an incline. 
 They agreed on an important caveat: Golf is fiendishly frustrating any way you play it. 
 "There are shots I blow and I chalk it up to having one leg -- my spikes on that leg slipped or whatever," said <a href="/topics/John_Devine">Devine</a>, 63, the tournament director. "I still blame myself and hate myself." 
 <a href="/topics/John_Devine">Devine</a> is a retired insurance salesman from <a href="/topics/Massapequa%2C_NY">Massapequa</a> who lost his right leg at the hip to mortar fire in <a href="/topics/Vietnam">Vietnam</a> when he was 19. 
 He took up the game a few years after he returned at his mother's suggestion. "You don't have to run, you don't have to jump," she said. She was right in both regards, which didn't make learning the game any easier. 
 "I'd been a professional lifeguard," Devine said. "I was in the <a href="/topics/US_Marine_Corps">Marine Corps</a>. Why can't I hit this little ball?" 
 He has played in the Amputee Classic since its start and it's been an education, he said. He's gotten advice from competitors on how to navigate the vast Veterans Affairs benefits system; how to hit out of a sand trap; which kind of gel pad to wear on his stump so as to play in comfort. 
 He picked up something else. "There's nobody out here saying 'Let me help you, let me help you,' " he said. "And I've never seen a guy in amputee golf say 'I can't do it.' "

Sports

Golf

LIGOLF25

Amputee golf tourney gives players joy

LIAMPU -- cropped

A group of strangers came to the aid of a Huntington man Thursday after a car he had jacked up and crawled under came down on top of him, police said. 
 The men got together and lifted the car off Jose Rios, 47, and pulled him out from underneath, <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> police said. 
 Police arrived a few minutes later and an ambulance took Rios to Huntington Hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said. 
 The incident happened just before 6 p.m. Thursday after Rios had pulled over on Madison Street, alongside Heckscher Park in Huntington, because he had heard some unusual muffler noises, police said. 
 Charles Schulz, 30, of <a href="/topics/Huntington_Station%2C_NY">Huntington Station</a>, said he was near the park with his wife and their newborn child when he heard Rios and went over, along with four or five others. 
 "We heard a screaming sound, and the sound of him hitting the side of the car, trying to make as much noise as possible," Schulz said. 
 Johnny Greenlaw, 37, of Huntington, a documentary filmmaker, was riding his bicycle when he saw the commotion around the car, a 1993 <a href="/topics/Toyota_Corolla">Toyota Corolla</a>. 
 "I just saw someone's legs sticking out from under the car," Greenlaw said. "He was losing his breath. The weight of the car was right on his chest and face. . . . I just said, 'One, two, three, lift!' and some others pulled him out." 
 None in the group knew each other, Greenlaw said. "All strangers. Just a group of people that came together to help this guy -- just good <a href="/topics/Samaritans">Samaritans</a>." 
 Schulz, a <a href="/topics/Commack%2C_NY">Commack</a> High School English teacher, said: "He should be thankful it was a very nice day and there were people in the area. 
 "It's what you see in the movies. We just came together and did what needed to be done."

Suffolk

LISAMA15

Strangers lift car off Huntington man

As Grace Varley's brother choked on food and turned blue, their panicked grandmother ran out the door -- carrying the passed-out toddler to the neighbor's house. 
 That's when Grace, just 4 years old, called 911. 
 "My brother's not moving," were her first words to the dispatcher Wednesday afternoon. Moments later, an ambulance was on its way. 
 Today, the <a href="/topics/Amityville%2C_NY">Amityville</a> Village preschooler is being hailed as a lifesaving hero by police, her parents and family friends. 
 "She was very calm, cool and collected," police Sgt. John Sullivan, who took the 911 call, said Friday. "Time is of the essence when you have a child that's not breathing." 
 "Gracie amazes me on a daily basis," said her mother, Alison Varley, 33, an attorney with the <a href="/topics/Nassau_County%2C_NY">Nassau</a> County attorney's office. 
 A few months ago, Grace also showed her mettle. 
 Her little brother Myles accidentally stuck a lollipop stick in his mother's ear, bursting an eardrum. While Varley was in pain, she said Grace soothed her tearful younger brother, saying, "Calm down, buddy. It's OK." 
 Then she turned to her mother and said, "Mommy, tell me what to do." 
 The day Myles choked, the children were having dinner with their grandmother and baby-sitter -- Christine Doran, 63. 
 "A chicken nugget was stuck in his throat," Grace recalled. "I was scared. I thought he was never going to wake up." 
 Doran said she carried the toddler to the sink, but he passed out. She tried the Heimlich maneuver and slapped his back. Nothing worked. 
 Hands shaking, Doran tried calling 911, but didn't get through. Leaving the phone on the counter, the grandmother ran outside with the boy, screaming the names of neighbors. 
 Grace, left with baby brother Conor, 8 months, knew about 911 from her prekindergarten class. She got through on the first try, calmly answering Sullivan's questions. 
 Officer John Andriella, 45, who happens to live next to the Varleys, was the first to arrive, about a minute later. Taking the boy from another neighbor, he put Myles upside down on his lap and slapped his back several times. 
 "He let out a cry, which to me was like music," the officer said. 
 Myles, accompanied by his relieved grandmother, was taken by ambulance to <a href="/topics/Good_Samaritan_Hospital">Good Samaritan Hospital</a> Medical Center in <a href="/topics/West_Islip%2C_NY">West Islip</a>. He was released that night to his mother and father, <a href="/topics/Real_Estate_%28musician%29">real estate</a> lawyer Myles Varley, 34. 
 Grace, who has a passion for princesses and all things <a href="/topics/Pink_%28singer%29">pink</a>, turned 5 on Friday. Myles turns 2 in six days. They'll share a backyard bash Saturday -- an event that was preplanned but is now suddenly poignant. 
 The hero worship, Grace figures, is just a bonus. 
 "I like it because it makes me feel very happy," she said.

LI91119

Preschooler's 911 call helps save brother

li91119- cropped

Javier Toro looks forward to walking less. Melanie Toney, a student, wants to help others with her new skill. And Angel Sacta, a truck driver, dreams of one day working as a bike mechanic in his native Ecuador. 
 The trio is half of the next stage of Workers Without Wheels, a 2-year-old program that provides bicycles to people who need them for transportation to their jobs. 
 The six trainees meet on Thursday nights at the Congregational Church of <a href="/topics/Patchogue%2C_NY">Patchogue</a> to learn the basics of bicycle assembly, mechanics and repair. Under the watchful eye of bike enthusiast and hobby mechanic David Santos, the five-week program teaches them an employable skill, and gives each a bike and a toolbox. By the end, the six will have helped to repair dozens of bikes that will be given away May 19. 
 More than bikes are being repaired, however. The brainchild of the pastor, the Rev. Dwight Lee Wolter, the program began as another way for the church to forge relationships with a community scarred by the death of <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Marcelo Lucero</a>, an Ecuadorean immigrant stabbed to death in the village in 2008. 
 The church, which hosted <a href="/topics/Lucero">Lucero</a>'s funeral, already provided meals, food and clothing to people in need. Then, because public transit services are limited, especially for those who work Sundays, it dawned on Wolter: bicycles. Since the program began in 2010, the church has collected used and new bikes, and given more than 100 to workers. 
 There's a steely determination in the pastor's voice as he states his church's chief mission: To be useful. Not content with the earlier successful bike giveaway, and armed this year with a $6,580 grant from the Self-Development of People Task Force of the Presbyterian Church (USA), it was time for Workers Without Wheels to "kick it up a notch," he said. 
 The program gets 100 percent of the money: for the $10-an-hour trainee stipends and to buy bikes at a steep discount, parts, some tools and the take-home toolboxes. 
 "Give a person a fish, you feed them for a day; teach a person to fish, you feed them for a lifetime. And that kind of generosity that you model for other people will come right back to you," Wolter said. 
 It's dark and dreary on Main Street in <a href="/topics/Patchogue%2C_NY">Patchogue</a> one Thursday night in April when the six gather again to work on bikes and hone their skills. Over the weeks, a bond has evolved among six former strangers and their confidence has grown. 
 "We share everything here," Sacta, 39, of Patchogue, said. "If I don't know how to do it, they help so we're working like <a href="/topics/Brothers_and_Sisters_%28musician%29">brothers and sisters</a> . . . people from different countries, but we are like family here." 
 Pride in their achievements is evident. "I feel very good about myself, that I have something that I can give back to the community," said Mexican-born Carlos Morales, 32, of <a href="/topics/Port_Jefferson%2C_NY">Port Jefferson</a>. 
 Toney, 20, said three of four people at her home in <a href="/topics/East_Patchogue%2C_NY">East Patchogue</a> rely on bikes for transport. Toro, 53, of <a href="/topics/Brentwood%2C_NY">Brentwood</a>, has had a friend drive him to the Patchogue class. 
 Wolter has more ambition for the program. But he needs more bike donations -- medium or adult-sized, in working order -- and cash to pay for the toolboxes, basic equipment and helmets. 
 Come May 19, from 9 a.m. to noon, the giveaway should again bring joy. "It's very humbling to see someone who has an option to take a new bike choose to take a used one -- to see that graciousness in people who in some case have very little and are responsible and grateful -- is touching," Wolter said. "We're helping people to help themselves, and to help others, and we can all be part of it," he said.

LIBIKE11

Bike repair training offers skills, pride

liWHEELS -- cropped

Cory Wohlenberg doesn't talk much.
Instead, he observes.
He notices what others don't.
And that's lucky for his friend, a fellow freshman at Smithtown High School East. 
Wohlenberg saved the boy's life last month when he began to choke on a taco, school officials said. 
The teens -- both 14 -- were sitting across the table from one another at school when Wohlenberg noticed his friend Yanni Megaris was struggling for air.
"I ran up behind him and did the Heimlich maneuver," he said. "I learned it from <a href="/topics/Boy_Scouts_of_America">Boy Scouts</a>."
Wohlenberg was given a Good Samaritan award from Smithtown Central School District earlier this week.
His mom, Karen Wohlenberg, heard of his heroism on April 26, the day the incident happened. School officials called her at home to congratulate her for her son's actions.
It's a good thing, she said. Her son is so tight-lipped and modest he might never have told her on his own. His mom calls him shy, considerate and organized.
"He pays attention," she said. "He listens."
Cory Wohlenberg, of <a href="/topics/St._James%2C_NY">St. James</a>, is the youngest of three and he has learned to fend for himself, his mother said. While his siblings would cry out for breakfast in the morning, he'd quietly climb the counter top and grab a cereal box himself. He'd be halfway done with his meal while the other kids were still carping.
"He's like MacGyver," his mother said. "He's resourceful."
School officials praised Wohlenberg for acting so quickly. "We're very proud of what he did," Assistant Principal Jason Pettis said. "He is one of those kids who is unassuming and just did a good deed. He is very humble. He didn't make a big deal about it."
As for Wohlenberg, he said he'll remember the incident for the rest of his life.
And so will his friend. 
"He thanked me and his parents called to thank me as well," Wohlenberg said.

LISKUL10

Teen honored for saving friend who choked

LITACO09 -- cropped

For Frankie Kahn, it's not so much about the meals as it is the companionship. 
 As he walks through the door of the Salvation Army soup kitchen in Riverhead, he gets a hug from Pastor Frank Dene, one of the six volunteers who serves lunch each day in the organization's basement. Dene greeted the 40 or so diners with hugs and handshakes. 
 Kahn, 55, who said he used to have a successful business hand-painting artwork on cars, is a recovering alcoholic, and finds warmth doled out along with the meal to be a daily reminder that he is loved, he said. 
 "The real prize is sobriety," Kahn added. "And where else can you get a hot meal every single day?" 
 Lunch is served Monday-Friday at 12:30. Dene and the other volunteers know that for some, the food they get here may be their only hot meal of the day. 
 On this day, like every Wednesday, the meal is donated chicken. In fact, much of the food and cakes are donated by local stores, such as BJs warehouse club, grocer Stop &amp; Shop and a nearby Bagel Lovers. The long tables have cloths and flowers, and many of the diners greet each other by name. Music plays in the background. 
 During the recent warmer weather, the soup kitchen has fed about 80 people on a given day. But the numbers are affected by the seasons. This past winter, which the Salvation Army said was a busy time for the organization, it had to use an auxiliary room to feed the hungry. About 150 to 175 showed up for lunch on some days, many of them farm laborers, according to the volunteers. Still others just sought to escape from the cold. 
 "We are here to serve the Lord," said Joe Frigano, who has managed the soup kitchen for two years. "It's God's kitchen." 
 <a href="/topics/Indeed.com">Indeed</a>, each meal begins with a prayer and a short devotional, the mission of the Salvation Army, which combines preaching with social concerns, working especially to assist the homeless and those addicted to alcohol and drugs. At a recent meal, the organization's Lt. Kelly Ross gave a talk on relying on God in times of trouble. Many of the diners tell stories of substance addiction or losing low-paying jobs that just kept their heads above water. No matter, said the volunteers. No one asks nor cares why they are here, they are just glad they came. 
 "When they come down here, they know they're loved," Dene said. 
 Frigano recalled that last year a woman mentioned it was her birthday, prompting the volunteers and diners to break out in song. It was the first time anyone ever sang to her, she told them. "That brings a tear to your eye," Frigano said. 
 After lunch, which lasts about an hour, the crowd scatters, some going across the street to the train station and others making the short walk to the Riverhead Public Library to get out of the cold. 
 Lorinda Pendelton, 39, who was at lunch with her boyfriend and best friend, said she also comes to the Salvation Army to attend church services, adding she finds solace in the sermons. 
 "It carries you a long way," Pendelton said about the food and the fellowship. "Especially when things are going bad."

TOSALV02

At Salvation Army, meals served with love

liHOMExx

Sachem East High School varsity football coach Mark Wojciechowski stood outside the charred remains of his lifelong home Wednesday and said that despite losing everything, he felt "blessed." 
His family was safe, support was pouring in from the close-knit Sachem school district community and his youngest daughter, he said, was "a hero." Mia, 7, had run screaming into her parents bedroom around 2 a.m. Wednesday to alert them of the fire.
"She saved the family," Wojciechowski said. "She's a hero."
As news of the fire spread through Farmingville, teachers organized to collect donations. Colleagues, administrators, neighbors and friends stopped by to comfort the family. Many contributed cash -- including children who dipped into their pockets to give whatever they had.
"It's very humbling," said Wojciechowski, 44, who coaches at Sachem East and teaches at Sachem North. "That's what I love about where I work and who I work with, and the students. There's a motto about the Sachem family: When people are in need people rally around them."
Wojciechowski was also thankful that he and his wife, Mary; their daughters Mia and Gabrielle, 8; nephew Julian, 17, and their <a href="/topics/Jack_Russell">Jack Russell</a> terrier made it out of the house safely.
Mia had a simple explanation for alerting her parents. "I couldn't sleep," she said Wednesday.
Volunteers from Farmingville, <a href="/topics/Holtsville%2C_NY">Holtsville</a>, <a href="/topics/Ronkonkoma%2C_NY">Ronkonkoma</a>, Selden and Medford fire departments fought the blaze on South Howell Avenue after getting a 2:27 a.m. alarm, but the flames had already engulfed the house. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
The family's loss shook and motivated the community.
John Heslin, president of the Sachem Central Teachers Association, said a donation drive collected $5,000 in an hour and a half. 
"The students were coming in saying, 'Can I give a dollar or $5 dollars?' " he said.
Wojciechowski, a former high school football star, longtime social studies teacher and dean at Sachem North in <a href="/topics/Lake_Ronkonkoma%2C_NY">Lake Ronkonkoma</a>, is known for his generosity, friends said. "He's got a heart of gold," said Tom Cestaro, a social studies teacher at Sachem East.
As the first-year varsity coach last season, Wojciechowski guided Farmingville's Sachem East to its first postseason win before losing to district rival Sachem North in the semifinals.
"He's been a pillar in the community just by what he does on a daily basis," said Sachem North Principal <a href="/topics/John_Dolan">John Dolan</a>.
Sachem East Principal Rory Manning said the support and donations are "a testament to him [Wojciechowski] and his relationship with the kids and the staff and the community. People here respect him so much and have always said they'd give him the shirt off their back. . . . Now, they're literally going to if that's what it takes."
With John Valenti
and Andy Slawson

LIFARM19

Sachem coach: 'Blessed' despite Farmingville fire

charred house

Fresh off an overnight shift and still in uniform, <a href="/topics/Nassau_County_Police">Nassau County Police</a> Officer Shevy Berkovits of <a href="/topics/Hewlett%2C_NY">Hewlett</a>'s Fourth Precinct hovered over a pallet of matzo Sunday morning in a <a href="/topics/Freeport%2C_NY">Freeport</a> warehouse, packing a cardboard box with kosher-for-Passover food.
"I just got off of work," said the five-year veteran as he put together supplies as part of a volunteer charity drive for poor, sick, shut-in or elderly Jews, but, "it's worth the lack of sleep." 
His motivation? Heartfelt moments like the delivery he made in a prior Passover to a homebound elderly woman. "The look on her face -- the gratitude, the appreciation," Berkovits said. "She started crying."
Berkovits was among dozens of off-duty and retired cops, law enforcement officers and civilian volunteers who navigated crowded warrens of donated food stacked high with borscht, gefilte fish and other Jewish staples ready to be shuttled to dozens of families across <a href="/topics/Long_Island%2C_NY">Long Island</a>.
Beginning Friday night and until April 14, Jews will celebrate Passover, and the charity helps the beneficiaries obey the holiday tradition. In solidarity with the biblical story of Exodus, leavened bread isn't eaten during the eight-day holiday, hence the need for matzo.
Volunteers with the social services charity Hatzilu Rescue Organization of <a href="/topics/Plainview%2C_NY">Plainview</a>, the Shomrim Society of <a href="/topics/Nassau_County%2C_NY">Nassau</a> County -- a fraternal group of Jewish law enforcement officers -- and several synagogues met at Nassau Provisions in Freeport to assemble the food.
Helping to organize the volunteers was Lt. Alan Hirsch, a Nassau police administrator, brandishing a red-and-white megaphone, and retired Nassau probation officer Cheryl Garber, who assigned volunteers to families.
One volunteer was Det. Lt. Gary Shapiro, the department's bias crimes coordinator and head of its Community Affairs Unit. He loaded up his family's minivan with a dolly of food and headed to <a href="/topics/Seaford%2C_NY">Seaford</a>.
"I hope your Pesach will be a good one," Shapiro greeted Gary Glatzerman, a widower and father of two teenagers, using the Hebrew name for the holiday.
Glatzerman, 54, who is unemployed, said he has been struggling since his wife, Elizabeth, 43, died of <a href="/topics/Breast_Cancer">breast cancer</a> about 18 months ago.
Shapiro also went to the home of Jerome Bogin, 66, and his wife, Eileen, 64, of Seaford. The couple said their ailing health this year ruled out hosting a seder, the traditional feast of the holiday.
She uses a wheelchair and said she has <a href="/topics/Diabetes">diabetes</a>, <a href="/topics/COPD">chronic obstructive pulmonary disease</a> and severe <a href="/topics/Arthritis">arthritis</a>. He's a cancer survivor. They welcome the help of a home health aide and the companionship of their cat, Trouble. 
Shapiro has been delivering to the Bogins for so many years that he knows what not to bring. "NO BORSCHT," his delivery notes say of the beet soup that is usually served cold. 
As Shapiro walked into their living room, Jerome Bogin stood up and greeted him in Hebrew.
The Bogins will have the food Friday. "It'll be like a seder but not quite," Eileen Bogin said. 
Not that the meal will be bereft of all tradition.
"I'll ask the Four Questions," Jerome Bogin said, referring to questions about the holiday traditionally asked by the youngest at the table, "and I'll answer them myself."

LIPASS02

Volunteers deliver Passover food to needy

liPASS02

To <a href="/topics/St._James%2C_NY">St. James</a> twins Oonagh and Gwyneth Knott, Sunday's cleanup of Nissequogue River State Park in <a href="/topics/Kings_Park%2C_NY">Kings Park</a> was part adventure, part community service.
"I had fun," said Gwyneth, her sweatshirt streaked with mud from collecting debris in the drizzle. "If everyone took out five pieces of trash a day, we'd have a cleaner world."
About 60 volunteers filled dozens of garbage bags with glass bottles, vintage beer cans and other rubbish they found by fanning out across the park's 521 acres.
They also found trash too large to fit in the bags. For instance, Oonagh and Gwyneth, 11, rolled a warped car tire down a <a href="/topics/Path.com">path</a>. 
High school students representing Young Leaders, a <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> County community group, listed a battered golf club as among their odd finds.
Dan McQuade, 17, a senior at Huntington High School, used an extending garbage grabber -- long-handled pincers -- undeterred by being on crutches because of an ankle injury.
"It's very important," Michael Rosato, 47, of Kings Park, chairman of Nissequogue River State Park Foundation, said of the volunteerism. "It shows the pride and respect that people have for the park and for the local community."
The park, formerly home to the Kings Park Psychiatric Center, is to undergo a transformation in May, when demolition of some of the derelict buildings begins.
<a href="/topics/Smithtown%2C_NY">Smithtown</a> resident Max Neukirch, 25, clearing brush by a pond, said his grandmother was a hospital employee, so maintaining the park is a point of family pride.
"So much passion and love was put into these buildings, but they've been left to decay," he said. "We might as well do something to make things better."
Susan Rowan, 46, of <a href="/topics/Nesconset%2C_NY">Nesconset</a>, and her family cleared a wooded hillside. Rowan said she believes some people treat the park as a dumping ground.
"It's really sad that people do this to their own community," she said. "We try to teach our kids that this is their world and it's going to be their kids' world, so they should take care of it."
Rowan's daughter Kaila, 15, said she was surprised by at least the quantity of what they found.
"I didn't realize there was going to be this much stuff," she said, dropping bottles into a trash bag with a clink.

LINISS26

LIers clean Nissequogue River State Park

liNISS

John Sopack needed a home within his <a href="/topics/Massapequa_Park%2C_NY">Massapequa Park</a> home -- a sanitary basement apartment where he could safely and comfortably recover from his treatments for leukemia. 
 A stranger volunteered to build it for him. 
 "When I read about John, it moved me," said Gary Zaccaro, a <a href="/topics/Massapequa%2C_NY">Massapequa</a> contractor. "He was somebody from my community." 
 Zaccaro, 46, this month finished renovating Sopack's basement as a bedroom, living room and bathroom. 
 He said he spent $35,000 on supplies and labor that included 20 workers. He oversaw every aspect of the construction, from the Sheetrock walls to the plumbing. 
 Zaccaro said he has built out many basements through his company, Ambassador <a href="/topics/Home_Improvement">Home Improvement</a>, but Sopack's needs are unique. 
 "It's not just that he goes down there recreationally. He has to live there," Zaccaro said. 
 Sopack, 36, was diagnosed in September with acute myeloid leukemia. He began treatment Feb. 3 that includes chemotherapy and a bone marrow and <a href="/topics/Stem_Cells">stem cell</a> transplant. 
 The treatment suppressed his immune system, making him unable to fight infections and diseases. 
 The married father of 2-year-old and 4-month-old sons is due home from <a href="/topics/Memorial_Sloan-Kettering_Cancer_Center">Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center</a> in Manhattan early next month and requires a recovery space that limits his exposure to germs. 
 "I needed somewhere to allow me to isolate myself from my family, my newborn, anything that is life-threatening to me as an immuno-suppressed patient," Sopack said. 
 Zaccaro began the four-week construction project with a clear understanding of Sopack's needs, both physical and emotional. 
 "The most important thing was to set up a space that is like his own little world away from his family in his house," Zaccaro said. "He needs to come home to a different kind of home." 
 Without Zaccaro's contribution, Sopack said he might be forced to live in an environment less than ideal for his full recovery. 
 Over the course of the construction, the two men become friends, their relationship strained by just one difference of opinion. 
 "The only bad thing about John is that he's a <a href="/topics/Minnesota_Vikings">Minnesota Vikings</a> fan," said Zaccaro, who roots for the <a href="/topics/New_York_Giants">Giants</a>. 
 Sopack said his feelings of gratitude toward Zaccaro are indescribable. 
 "It's something you can't put into words: how somebody comes out of nowhere, and, out of the goodness and generosity and kindness of his heart, says, 'You're a complete stranger, but you're a part of my community and I want to do something for you.' " 
 Sopack predicted that Zaccaro has good deeds coming his way. 
 "It's a paying-it-forward thing," Sopack said. "It's karma." 
 &nbsp; 
<h3> The renovation</h3> 
 &nbsp; 
 &nbsp; 
<ul> 
 <li> Located in basement of John Sopack's <a href="/topics/Massapequa_Park%2C_NY">Massapequa Park</a> home</li> 
</ul> 
 &nbsp; 
 &nbsp; 
 &nbsp; 
 &nbsp; 
 &nbsp; 
 
<li> Isolates him from his children, whose ordinarily harmless germs could be life-threatening to him</li> 
 
 &nbsp; 
 &nbsp; 
 &nbsp; 
 &nbsp; 
 &nbsp; 
 &nbsp; 
 &nbsp; 
 &nbsp; 
 
<li> Includes a bedroom with walk-in closet, living room, bathroom with moisture-resistant Sheetrock and a filtration system for cleaner air</li> 
 
 &nbsp; 
 &nbsp;

Health

TOLEUK21

Cancer patient gets help from 'stranger'

sopack - cropped

A quietly devout young <a href="/topics/Huntington_Station%2C_NY">Huntington Station</a> man, cast into "a haze of grief" after his father's murder two years ago, has renewed hope for his future, thanks to generous strangers touched by his plight. 
 On Jan. 24, 2010, Denis Caceres, 19, saw his father, Geremias Caceres, shot dead during a botched robbery in front of their home. With the family struggling from the loss of his father's income, Denis Caceres dropped out of <a href="/topics/Nassau_Community_College">Nassau Community College</a> last fall and feared he'd never return to study music. 
 But strangers moved by his story raised enough money to send him back to the college last month. 
 "I definitely thought I wasn't going to make it," said the soft-spoken Caceres. "I don't even know what to think. It's like a miracle." 
 That miracle took root in September, when jury selection began for Geremias Caceres' killer, Ralph Guerrier. 
 One of the potential jurors was Andrea Miller, 52, of <a href="/topics/Northport%2C_NY">Northport</a>. She wasn't selected, but when Guerrier was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison two months later, she read in Newsday about Denis Caceres being forced to leave school. 
 "I made it my <a href="/topics/Christmas">Christmas</a> charity," Miller said. "I told myself, whatever I can do will be better than nothing." 
 She called the college and set up a scholarship for Denis Caceres through the <a href="/topics/Nassau_Community_College">Nassau Community College</a> Foundation. She spread the word among her friends and family. She got in touch with Students for 60,000, a student group at <a href="/topics/Northport%2C_NY">Northport</a> High School that has worked to improve villages in Nicaragua and to teach English to Latino immigrants in <a href="/topics/Farmingville%2C_NY">Farmingville</a>, among other projects. 
 After a vote, the group -- named for the number of homeless people in New York City when it was founded in 1987 -- raised more than $1,000 for the scholarship fund, about half of the tuition bill. 
 "They know the importance of education to this population," said the group's adviser, Lisa Perez Flanagan. "They were very affected by Andrea's presentation of his story." 
 Other donors enlisted by Miller contributed to the remaining tuition bill. 
 Miller said she was even more determined to help once she met Denis Caceres after launching the fundraising effort. 
 "Denis was in this kind of haze of grief," she said. 
 The teenager had seen his mother, Blanca, sink into depression over losing the man she loved since their childhood in El Salvador. His 8-year-old brother, Brandon, suffered constant nightmares. 
 "His therapy was going to school," Miller said. "I thought that would be the worst thing, to take this away from a family trying to better itself." 
 Denis Caceres made an impression with his humility and gratitude last month when he came to <a href="/topics/Northport%2C_NY">Northport</a> High School with Miller to thank the student group in person, Perez Flanagan said. 
 Dawn DiStefano, executive director of the <a href="/topics/Nassau_County%2C_NY">Nassau</a> Community College Foundation, said Denis Caceres' return to school was "bittersweet" -- a heartening end to a story with an awful beginning. "We were happy to move this along," she said. 
 Glenn Kurtzrock, the <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> prosecutor who convicted Guerrier and his accomplices with the help of Denis Caceres' emotionally vivid testimony, said he was delighted that the young man was back at school. 
 "He seemed to me to be a really nice, well-grounded kid," Kurtzrock said. "It kind of renews your faith in the human spirit." 
 Denis Caceres said since his return to school, "I have my mind right." He is again focused on a future of teaching music to children and continuing to play percussion, piano and other instruments in his church, Genesis Assembly of God in <a href="/topics/Westbury%2C_NY">Westbury</a>. 
 He is grateful to Miller and the donors she enlisted. 
 "She's an awesome person," he said. "There aren't many who have a heart like hers." 
 Denis Caceres said he is determined not to let his benefactors down. 
 "It touched us," he said. "I'm really grateful. I realize I'm surrounded by people, by great people." 
 He said his father's slaying still casts a shadow over his family's life, but the end of the criminal case and his return to school has finally allowed everyone to feel they can move forward. 
 "I'm still going to have those days when I feel down," he said. "But no matter what, just keep on going with life. Nothing's impossible. I have faith that God is really with me."

LICACE12

Crime victim helped by generous strangers

liCACE12- cropped

A veteran Suffolk County police officer helped resuscitate a woman Tuesday in Huntington -- the third time in the past two weeks that he has helped save a victim in distress.
"These are common events that are taking place in the county on a daily basis," <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County_Police">Suffolk County Police</a> Officer James Garside said Wednesday afternoon as he stood beside his patrol car behind the Second Precinct station house on Park Avenue.
Garside, 42, is a member of the department's Medical Crisis Action Team. He said all of the cases he had worked on recently involved quick action by everyone.
"If you look at all these circumstances, there was an early call to 911. There was a bystander CPR that was initiated. Officers arrived within minutes with an AED [portable defibrillator] and I too arrived within minutes with advanced cardiac life support equipment," he said.
His high-tech medical bag contains equipment to start intravenous medication and a tubular device to provide air directly to the lungs.
Garside, responding to a 911 call of a woman in cardiac arrest, was able to resuscitate the 46-year-old victim Tuesday evening in Huntington, police said. The woman, whose identity was not released, was taken by the Huntington Community First Aid Squad to Huntington Hospital in critical condition.
On Jan. 19 police said Garside was part of a team that helped save a 23-year-old apparent overdose victim found slumped in car outside a <a href="/topics/Brentwood%2C_NY">Brentwood</a> restaurant with a needle in his arm. On Jan. 24, he helped revive a heart attack victim found on a sidewalk in <a href="/topics/Huntington_Station%2C_NY">Huntington Station</a>.
 Garside, whose father, also James, is a retired one-star chief from the <a href="/topics/Nassau_County_Police">Nassau County Police</a> Department, has been assigned to the Second Precinct since graduating from the Police Academy in 1993.
"I found that the most rewarding work was in patrol," he said. "It has the greatest variety -- from criminal calls to traffic enforcement to aided cases, lifesaving calls."
He said that he did traffic enforcement when not responding to medical emergencies and had made more than 100 drunken driving arrests during his 19 years on the force.

LISAVE02

Suffolk police officer to the rescue -- again

james garside cropped

Samantha Garvey was overjoyed. She didn't think a kid living in a homeless shelter would have a chance in the national Intel science competition, but the 17-year-old <a href="/topics/Brentwood%2C_NY">Brentwood</a> High School senior was named a semifinalist Wednesday. 
 Garvey, who spent 2 1/2 years on a marine-life study, is one of 61 <a href="/topics/Long_Island%2C_NY">Long Island</a>ers with a shot at Intel's top prize: $100,000. 
 "It's amazing," she said, after learning of the award. "I can't believe it. I was thinking about it the other day and said, 'Nah, it's not going to happen. They pick people in <a href="/topics/Roslyn%2C_NY">Roslyn</a>, <a href="/topics/Great_Neck%2C_NY">Great Neck</a>, <a href="/topics/Jericho%2C_NY">Jericho</a> . . . people who have it all.' " 
 Garvey -- who lives in a <a href="/topics/Bay_Shore%2C_NY">Bay Shore</a> shelter with her parents and her brother and sister, who are 13-year-old twins -- said her family's setbacks are a source of motivation, not just despair. 
 "I want better, so that's why I do well in school," she said. 
 While the recognition from Intel surprised the teenager, her mentors said she is a standout. 
 "The drive she has is unsurpassable," said Garvey's guidance counselor, Karin Feil. "She has overcome more obstacles than any other student I have seen. She takes advantage of anything offered to her." 
 Garvey's family first became homeless when she was a little girl, she and her father said. She switched elementary schools three times in a single year. 
 The Garveys' circumstances eventually improved enough for them to live in the same home for several years. But her parents, Leo and Olga, missed work and lost income after a car accident last February. On New Year's Day, behind on their rent, they were forced out of their house and spent a week in a hotel before going to the shelter. 
 Garvey acknowledges the trauma of being uprooted and the family's financial stress can make it harder for her to focus on school and her goal of becoming a marine biologist. 
 "You think about what is going on, where you are going to be, off in the middle of nowhere, stuck in a shelter and it worries you," she said. "The house we were living in had a dog, a cat, turtles. Then one day someone turns around and says, 'You have to leave.' 
 "What are you going to do with your animals? Yourself?" 
 The dog, a 4-year-old pit bull named Pulga, is in the pound and will likely be euthanized, Garvey said. The cat is staying with a relative and the turtles are at her cabdriver father's dispatch office. She's hopeful that her parents might find a new home within a month. She's not sure what will happen to her pets. 
 Still, she presses on, maintaining a 3.9 grade-point average and her faith that education will bring her -- and her family -- a better life. She is president of her school's chapter of the National Honor Society and is applying to Brown University, among others. 
 Rebecca Grella, her science research teacher, mentor and friend, said Garvey will make her mark. 
 "She is one of the most inquisitive, thought-provoking, respectable minds that I've met," Grella said. "She is willing to accept when something needs to be changed. She is more than humble." 
 Garvey's Intel project focused on predators' effects on ribbed mussels. 
 Garvey was named a semifinalist in the national Siemens competition in math, science and technology in October 2010 and started studying mussels in 10th grade. Her findings, which focused on mussels' effect on the health of salt marshes, were published in the Journal of Shellfish Research last summer. 
 Despite her family's tribulations, Garvey continues to help others in need -- bringing food to school for the hungry and presents for special needs students. She is cheerful and charismatic, Grella said. 
 "She is steadfast and determined not to be a victim," the teacher said. "She will not complain. She has been a gift and a light in my life." 
 Feil, the guidance counselor, said she's ranked fourth in a class of 433. Garvey's course load is heavy; she's enrolled in Advanced Placement courses in biology, statistics, literature and composition, and politics. She's also studying Italian and playing the violin. 
 She and Grella credit her parents for encouraging her and for driving her wherever she needs to go to complete her research. 
 Leo Garvey said his daughter has pushed herself all her life. 
 "I'm always bragging about her," he said. "She sets her mind to something and she goes for it. She amazes me all of the time." 
 &nbsp; 
 &nbsp; 
<h3> Samantha Garvey's study</h3> 
 &nbsp; 
 Samantha Garvey's Intel project focused on the effects of predators on ribbed mussels. 
 Garvey used a laboratory at <a href="/topics/Stony_Brook_University">Stony Brook University</a> to expose the mollusks to the Asian shore crab, an invasive species that can be found all along the Atlantic coast, including <a href="/topics/Long_Island%2C_NY">Long Island</a>. 
 The results showed that mussels exposed to crabs grew thicker, heavier shells to protect themselves. 
 Mussels are critical to marshes in part because they filter contaminants out of the water and excrete valued nutrients. The marshes serve as an essential barrier between the ocean and <a href="/topics/Long_Island%2C_NY">Long Island</a> and also provide nurseries for myriad fish and other sea life. 
 -- JO NAPOLITANO

LISAMA12

Samantha Garvey's story: From homeless shelter to Intel semifinalist

lilNTE12

A stranger bearing gifts saved Christmas for a North <a href="/topics/Bellport%2C_NY">Bellport</a> family after, police said, their home was burglarized and their kitchen flooded over the weekend. 
 John Theissen, 40, of <a href="/topics/Seaford%2C_NY">Seaford</a>, who runs a nonprofit foundation for disadvantaged children, stopped by the home Tuesday with a bag of presents and a check for $5,000, saying he was angry after hearing about the burglary in news reports. 
 "This shouldn't happen," he said. "This is something I had to do." 
 Theissen sat with Cheri Sabolenko and her two children -- daughter Madison, 12, and son Mathew, 10, at the kitchen table, near the Christmas tree, which, the family said, had been surrounded by presents until the burglary. 
 "Before I leave today, you'll think this is the best Christmas of your life," he said. 
 That had seemed impossible Sunday morning. <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> police said that's when the family noticed the missing gifts after returning from an overnight stay at a <a href="/topics/Long_Island%2C_NY">Long Island</a> hotel to celebrate Madison's 12th birthday. 
 Sabolenko, who says she is a single mother working two jobs including as a teacher's assistant, moved into their new <a href="/topics/Habitat_for_Humanity">Habitat for Humanity</a>-built home a year ago Saturday with her children. 
 Last Christmas, she said, the family was overwhelmed at having a new home and never got around to getting a Christmas tree or stringing up lights. 
 This year, Sabolenko said, she wanted a real Christmas for her kids. Hidden in the closets was an <a href="/topics/Xbox">Xbox</a>, video games and pink jewelry for Madison. 
 When they returned home Sunday, Sabolenko said: "Everything was just gone. There was nothing left. Not one present." 
 She also noticed something else. The kitchen was flooded and the sink faucet was running. 
 Police said among the missing items were four televisions Sabolenko said her parents gave her as a housewarming gift, two laptop computers, video games and the presents. 
 Fifth Squad Det. Sgt. Bryan McMenemy said there had been no reason for burglars to stop up the kitchen sink and leave the faucet running. 
 "It's just wanting to do damage. Some people aren't feeling the Christmas spirit." 
 Sabolenko estimated the value of the stolen goods and damage from the water at $5,000. 
 The family's neighbor, Vanessa Eleazer, said, "This really was the Grinch." 
 By Tuesday afternoon, Madison was downcast about a Christmas without presents. If she could, she said she would have asked whoever burglarized their home, "Why would you do this when you don't even know us?" 
 Her mood brightened when Theissen passed out presents, courtesy of his foundation. 
 Theissen put an <a href="/topics/Xbox">Xbox</a> on the kitchen table, then a camera. 
 "Oooh," Mathew said and shook his hands in excitement. Theissen gave out a stack of gift cards, including a $700 one. And if that were not enough, he wrote the check for $5,000. 
 "Thank you," said Madison, a little weakly at first, then, "We thought we weren't going to have a happy Christmas."

LIHOME21

A stranger saves one family's Christmas

liHOME

At the top of 8-year-old Emilio Pereira's <a href="/topics/Christmas">Christmas</a> list was a wish that his older brother, a Marine serving in <a href="/topics/Afghanistan">Afghanistan</a>, would come home safe for the holidays. 
 On Friday morning, the third-grader's present arrived -- formally wrapped. 
 Lance Cpl. Sigfredo Arturo Velasquez, just home on a 30-day leave, made a surprise visit in full uniform to his brother's Freeport elementary school classroom. 
 "What's up, amigo?" Velasquez, 22, said as he entered the room at Leo F. Giblyn Elementary. 
 Emilio ran from his seat to give his brother a hug and didn't want to let go. His huge smile said it all. 
 "I didn't know he was going to come in," Emilio said later. "I get to see my brother." 
 Teary-eyed teachers watched the reunion in front of television cameras and reporters. 
 In November, Emilio's class adopted Velasquez as its hero, making him cards and an American flag with red handprints for stripes and handwritten "thank-yous." 
 Emeley Moz-Hernandez, 8, read aloud a message she wrote for Velasquez: "Thank you for protecting our country . . . Emilio misses you when you are away from home and I hope you are safe." 
 The students thought they were going to talk with Velasquez via <a href="/topics/Skype">Skype</a> on Friday, but educators and Emilio's mother, Sonia Pereira, hatched the surprise plan. 
 A little after 10 a.m., Velasquez and his mother entered the classroom. 
 "It was very special," the Marine said of his brother's reaction. "I am very close to him and I miss him a lot." 
 Pereira stood at her grown son's side, her voice breaking as she thanked the class and said, "I have my son here." 
 Teacher Lisa Malone said her class had been preparing for the <a href="/topics/Skype">Skype</a> chat for days, making decorations and drafting questions. 
 Her eyes grew misty when Emilio embraced his brother. 
 "These are really tears of joy," she said. 
 Velasquez returned home Thursday. He has been serving in the infantry in <a href="/topics/Afghanistan">Afghanistan</a> since April, working with Afghan soldiers and police. 
 The Freeport High School graduate was honored by Superintendent Kishore Kuncham, who presented him with a framed piece of art created by kids throughout the district. 
 "You make Freeport and the country proud," Kuncham said. 
 But Velasquez told the students that teachers are heroes, too. 
 "If you can, make me a promise," he said. "Love your teachers and do what they tell you to do."

LISOLD10

Marine surprises brother, 8, at school

liSOLDIERjcw

A Mister Softee driver was forced to dispense more than ice cream when a man who appeared to be armed jumped into his truck as it idled at a red light in Centereach. 
But the alleged robber was soon tackled and wrestled to the ground by a man driving by, police said. 
Mister Softee driver Taner Yalcin, 29, of <a href="/topics/Coram%2C_NY">Coram</a>, said he was stopped at Hawkins and Nicolls roads about 7:30 p.m. Saturday on his way back from a day selling ice cream when he saw a movement near his truck. 
“I checked the mirrors, and I saw some man like he’s going to jump inside,” said Yalcin, a Mister Softee driver for about five years. 
The man, who police identified as Robert Martone, 42, of Centereach, dove through the ice-cream truck’s order window and pushed what looked like a gun in Yalcin’s face, demanding money. 
After Yalcin emptied his pockets of about $60, he said the man took the cash and jumped out through the same window, breaking the truck’s light with his foot. 
Meanwhile, across the street, Michael Rhatigan, 48, of South <a href="/topics/Setauket%2C_NY">Setauket</a>, was returning from dinner with his wife and 10-year-old son when he saw the Mister Softee truck stopped at the light. “I’m thinking, ‘I’m diabetic, but man, I would love Mister Softee right now,’ ” Rhatigan said. Then he noticed a man running in front of the truck and down Eastwood Boulevard. 
“It didn’t look right to me,” Rhatigan said. 
As the Mister Softee truck made a U-turn to follow the man, Rhatigan said he drove his car ahead of the truck to try to reach the man, who had by then fled into nearby woods. 
After telling his wife and son to stay in the car, Rhatigan said he got out and sprinted toward the man, yelling, “Hey, what’d you do to that Mister Softee truck?” 
Rhatigan said the man started running, and Rhatigan gave chase, tackling him once the two made it back onto the street. 
Yalcin pulled up alongside the two, jumped out and helped subdue the struggling man until police arrived. 
Martone was arrested and charged with first-degree robbery. The gun turned was a fake, police said. Martone was scheduled to be arraigned in First District Court in <a href="/topics/Central_Islip%2C_NY">Central Islip</a> on Sunday. 
Rhatigan, who said he works as an air-conditioner mechanic, said he never thought twice about getting involved. 
“I just had a sixth sense [that] something was wrong and somebody needed help,” he said. “I’m a simple man, I like to help out others. I was just trying to be a good citizen and do the right thing.” 
&nbsp;

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Cops: Driver, Good Samaritan thwart Mister Softee robbery

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The Huntington student who helped save his friends' lives after a bear attack in <a href="/topics/Alaska">Alaska</a> last weekend might delay his career for a year so he can pursue a job rescuing people. 
Simeon Melman's revelation came Thursday as he accepted an award from <a href="/topics/Good_Samaritan_Hospital">Good Samaritan Hospital</a> Medical Center for his role in the rescue. The teen is a hospital volunteer and was trained in first aid there. 
Melman, 17, said he was inspired by the troopers who rescued his group of outdoor-survival-skills students by helicopter early Sunday. "I'm thinking about taking a year off between college and work to be a rescuer in a helicopter," he said after he received the hospital's Community Service Award. "I want to do what those guys did for us." 
Melman said he called on training he learned as a junior volunteer at the <a href="/topics/West_Islip%2C_NY">West Islip</a> hospital to treat wounds and provide care to four fellow students who suffered injuries, two of them serious, when they were attacked by a grizzly. "Without my training, I would have been freaking out," Melman said. 
The boys were on the last leg of a survival skills course with the <a href="/topics/Wyoming">Wyoming</a>-based National Outdoor Leadership School. They were hiking without an instructor. 
Dr. Jerome Weiner, the hospital's chief medical officer, said Melman "provided very supportive and intelligent care." 
Melman credited the friends who helped care for the injured. "Without their strength and teamwork, this definitely would not have been a happy ending," he said. 
The other members of the group included Joshua Berg, 17, of New City in Rockland County; Sam Gottsegen, 17, of Denver; Sam Boas, 16, of Westport, Conn.; Shane Garlock, 16, of upstate Pittsford; Victor Martin, 18, of Richmond, <a href="/topics/California">Calif</a>.; and Noah Allaire, 16, of Albuquerque, N.M. 
Gottsegen, the most severely mauled, was in good condition at an <a href="/topics/Anchorage%2C_AK">Anchorage</a> hospital. Berg was in fair condition. Allaire and Martin were discharged.

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Award for teen who gave aid in bear attack

Simeon Melman - cropped

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One volunteered at a shelter for Ukranian refugees in Budapest, another published research on artifical intelligence. Meet this year's salutatorians from Long Island's Class of 2023.

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