Oyster Bay teen donates hundreds of sanitation kits to LI homeless

Watching stories on TV about how hard the COVID-19 pandemic hit the homeless, James Bodian, 16, of Oyster Bay, got an idea.

This was a year ago, when the coronavirus pandemic was still in its relative infancy, and folks across Long Island were thinking of things they could do to deal with the fallout, maybe even lend a hand.

And Bodian? He found a way to be part of the solution.

"My dad's a dermatologist," the teen said last week. "He gets all these samples at work — masks, soaps, hand sanitizers."

So what if, Bodian asked himself, he got together some cash, got toiletry travel cases, and packaged the items as needed sanitizer kits for the homeless?

Last August, Bodian, a sophomore at the Portledge School in Locust Valley, delivered 100 of those kits to MOMMAS House, an organization that provides shelter and care for expectant and new mothers and their babies who are homeless, at their shelter at the Church of St. Rocco in Glen Cove.

He delivered another 100 this month to the Grenville Baker Boys & Girls Club in Locust Valley and still another 100 again to MOMMAS House.

Though the first batch of kits was done largely using samples provided by his father, Adam, Bodian said the items in subsequent kits were bought with money he raised doing odds and ends. "This winter," he said, "I shoveled a lot of driveways."

"It absolutely was so wonderful what he did for MOMMAS House," said Erika Ventura, house manager for the Mommas site in Glen Cove.

The organization runs shelters at a handful of locations in Nassau, and Ventura said the kits were distributed to each of those sites to help new moms.

"We were able to provide them at all our shelters," she said. "Doing this? It's very important, especially during the most-crisis situation in the world, that he thought, 'Let me help people who need help.' It speaks highly."

Bodian and his mother, Halley, admitted they got the idea to donate to MOMMAS after calling the office of Nassau County Legis. Joshua Lafazan (I-Woodbury), who became the youngest-ever legislator in county history when he was elected in November 2017 at 23.

"James is fantastic," Lafazan said. "James saw a need during COVID and at age 16 decided to take action and reached out to his local representative for help. We were absolutely elated to put him in touch with an organization in need. … The selflessness of these kids [like James] is remarkable, the fact that at such a young age they're willing to give of themselves and ask for nothing in return. This is a young man who wanted to help for the sake of helping."

Then again, the idea of service and volunteering is something Bodian said he's been inspired to do since he joined the local Oyster Bay-East Norwich Boys & Girls Club of America chapter about six years ago. It's there that Bodian mentors and tutors younger kids, even coaching them in hockey — because he's defenseman on the junior varsity team at Portledge, where he also plays varsity lacrosse.

He is a member of Keystone, the community-based service program at the Boys & Girls Club. Program Director Jean Marie Weiner said Bodian was the chapter's Youth of the Year in 2020.

"He's great," Weiner said. "He's very polite, he's very respectful. He will help with whatever we need. … He's very generous with his time. He's super involved in sports and he's super smart. I think he's just compelled to make the world a better place."

As Bodian's mother, Halley, said: "A lot of people just focus on themselves. But I think he's just looked at these situations and said, 'How can I help others?'"

Bodian, who's also been working to get his younger brother Will and sister K.K. involved in charitable work, said he began collecting recyclables years ago after finding bags of bottles and cans at his grandmother's house. Next, he expanded that to cleaning up local beaches, because he's also a surfer and clean beaches were important to him. In the past two years he's turned that recycling into more than $1,400 in cash — all while persuading his father to make donations, as well.

But Bodian didn't pocket the money. Or spend it on something for himself.

He donated it to the Boys & Girls Club, more than $2,000, to help buy video games and gaming systems and even fund a year-end pizza party for the kids there last year.

"My son thinks he's a superhero," Weiner said, talking about how excited her 5-year-old, Benjamin, and other kids at the club were about the pizzas.

In addition to all this, Bodian and his father also sponsor oyster cages to help regenerate the local oyster population as part of the Oyster Bay Protection Committee. The goal of that program, he said, is to improve water quality in Long Island Sound — an ecosystem in which oysters play a vital role.

To that end, Bodian is "an oyster gardener," helping raise baby oysters until they can grow to maturity for release to a so-called "spawner sanctuary."

Bodian said that while he's not really sure which career lies ahead of him — he's interested in possibly pursuing one in environmental engineering — he is certain that volunteerism and service will remain a part of his life.

"I see myself doing this throughout college and even after," he said. "I don't see my passion for this going away anytime soon and I hope my actions can inspire others to do the same."

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”