Parents, students and school districts had a confusing week with mask mandates for kids pre-K through 12 needing clarification from the governor.
On Friday, June 4, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said an announcement was coming to drop in-school mask mandates for children. But shortly after, the state Department of Health’s announcement didn’t align with what he said.
Health officials said they had not yet received an OK from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and on Monday, Cuomo announced the CDC would not be changing guidance for wearing masks, therefore they are still required inside schools.
According to Cuomo, school districts can lift the requirement that students must wear masks outdoors. The state’s guidance on mask use indoors remains in place, but school districts may choose to no longer require masks outdoors, for example during recess. This change aligns with guidance relating to summer camps, where even unvaccinated campers are not required to wear masks outdoors.
“Children wear masks in school inside, and when they’re outside of the school building in recess, etc., it’s hot, they’re running around, but they’re outside, there is no mandate for masks outside. We’ll leave that up to the local school districts,” Cuomo said Monday.
This came just days after rallies were hosted across Long Island, demanding that the governor “unmask our kids.”
Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-NY1) and upset parents gathered Wednesday, June 2, outside the H. Lee Dennison building in Hauppauge to demand a mask-free environment for children in schools and camps.
“This is the right decision for children across New York, who have sacrificed so much throughout the pandemic and suffered emotionally, physically and mentally from lockdowns and remote learning,” Zeldin said at the rally.
The week before, May 26, Andrew Giuliani (R) — another contender for Cuomo’s seat in 2022 and son of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) —stopped by the same spot to show his support for the same cause.
These rallies were put together by parents and advocacy groups who hoped to influence Cuomo’s decision to lift the mandate.
“It’s a parent’s right to take care of their children the best way they feel fit,” said Mike Hathaway from Long Island Loud Majority, a conservative organization. “Not the government, not for political pull, and not for control.”
Moms for Liberty, an advocacy group from Suffolk County that focuses on unifying America while educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights, has been working to get the mask mandate lifted in New York.
A member of the group, Barbara Abboud, said her children, among many others, have been suffering in school, whether that be academic, mental or physical.
“Everyone here today knows what’s at stake,” she said. “It’s more than just unmasking our children, it’s about getting our basic freedoms back.”
Zeldin also discussed his animosity with the prior COVID-19 restrictions, where businesses were forced to close at earlier hours to prevent the spread of the virus.
“There was a time when they said you couldn’t go to the gym after 10 [p.m.] because, apparently, that spreads COVID,” Zeldin said. “However, if you go at 8:30 with a whole group of people, that would mitigate the spread.”
Cuomo said virtually all restrictions can be lifted once 70% of New Yorkers aged 18 and older have received the first dose of the vaccine.
Rocky Point senior Emmarose Hansen clears from behind the cage in a home game against Kings Park June 4. Bill Landon photo
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Kings Park sophomore Anne McGovern pushes up-field in a road game against Rocky Point June 4. Bill Landon photo
10th grader Anne McGovern looks for a cutter for Kings Park in a Div II road game against Rocky Point June 4. Bill Landon photo
Kings Park sophomore Anne McGovern crosses midfield pursued by Lindsey Lucia June 4. Bill Landon photo
Kings Park sophomore Anne McGovern in traffic in a Div II matchup against Rocky Point June 4. Bill Landon photo
Rocky Point senior Emmarose Hansen passes out front in a home game against Kings Park June 4. Bill Landon photo
Rocky Point senior Emmarose Hansen pushes up-field in a home game against Kings Park June 4. Bill Landon photo
Rocky Point senior Emmarose Hansen clears from behind the cage in a home game against Kings Park June 4. Bill Landon photo
Kings Park sophomore Jaxie Cestone drives on a Rocky Point defender in a Div II matchup June 4. Photo by Bill Landon
Kings Park sophomore Jaxie Cestone’s shot on goal in a Div II matchup against Rocky Point June 4. Photo by Bill Landon
Kings Park sophomore Jaxie Cestone turns up-field in a Div II matchup against Rocky Point June 4. Photo by Bill Landon
Rocky Point senior goalie Jenika Cuocco with a save in a home game against Kings Park June 4. Bill Landon photo
Rocky Point senior Kelly Logue clears the ball for the Eagles in a home game against Kings Park June 4. Bill Landon photo
Rocky Point senior Kelly Logue from behind the cage for the Eagles in a home game against Kings Park June 4. Bill Landon photo
Rocky Point senior Kelly Logue scores for the Eagles in a home game against Kings Park June 4. Bill Landon photo
Rocky Point senior Kelly Logue sets up the play for the Eagles in a home game against Kings Park June 4. Bill Landon photo
Kings Park senior Kiera Feibusch shoots at Rocky Point keeper Jenika Cuocco June 4. Bill Landon photo
The Eagles of Rocky Point had a six-goal cushion at the halftime break, but Kings Park came out strong early in the second half drawing within three goals two different times when the Eagles slammed the door to win the Division II matchup 19-13 at home, June 4.
Senior Kelly Logue topped the scoring chart for the Eagles with five goals. Lindsey Lucia followed with four, and seniors Kaleigh Wilgeroth and Emmarose Hansen both had hat tricks.
A pair of sophomores led the way for Kings Park with Jaxie Cestone and Anne McGovern scoring three goals each.
Rocky Point senior Jenika Cuocco had 12 saves at net.
The Eagles finish their regular COVID- shortened season at 11-3 to ready themselves for post season play which began Tuesday June 8. Rocky Point was scheduled to play Comsewogue June 9. Results were not available at press time. Kings Park concluded their 2021 contest at 7-6.
Pictured clockwise from above left, Kings Park sophomore Anne McGovern crosses midfield pursued by Rocky Point junior Lindsey Lucia; Rocky Point junior Victoria Curreri takes possession for the Eagles; senior Emmarose Hansen pushes up-field; senior Kelly Logue sets up the play; senior goalie Jenika Cuocco with a save in a home game.
A team of researchers led by chemists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has studied an elusive property in cathode materials, called a valence gradient, to understand its effect on battery performance. The findings, published in Nature Communications, demonstrated that the valence gradient can serve as a new approach for stabilizing the structure of high-nickel-content cathodes against degradation and safety issues.
High-nickel-content cathodes have captured the attention of scientists for their high capacity, a chemical property that could power electric vehicles over much longer distances than current batteries support. Unfortunately, the high nickel content also causes these cathode materials to degrade more quickly, creating cracks and stability issues as the battery cycles.
In search of solutions to these structural problems, scientists have synthesized materials made with a nickel concentration gradient, in which the concentration of nickel gradually changes from the surface of the material to its center, or the bulk. These materials have exhibited greatly enhanced stability, but scientists have not been able to determine if the concentration gradient alone was responsible for the improvements. The concentration gradient has traditionally been inseparable from another effect called the valence gradient, or a gradual change in nickel’s oxidation state from the surface of the material to the bulk.
In the new study led by Brookhaven Lab, chemists at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory synthesized a unique material that isolated the valence gradient from the concentration gradient.
“We used a very unique material that included a nickel valence gradient without a nickel concentration gradient,” said Brookhaven chemist Ruoqian Lin, first author of the study. “The concentration of all three transition metals in the cathode material was the same from the surface to the bulk, but the oxidation state of nickel changed. We obtained these properties by controlling the material’s atmosphere and calcination time during synthesis. With sufficient calcination time, the stronger bond strength between manganese and oxygen promotes the movement of oxygen into the material’s core while maintaining a Ni2+ oxidation state for nickel at the surface, forming the valence gradient.”
Once the chemists successfully synthesized a material with an isolated valence gradient, the Brookhaven researchers then studied its performance using two DOE Office of Science user facilities at Brookhaven Lab—the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) and the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN).
At NSLS-II, an ultrabright x-ray light source, the team leveraged two cutting-edge experimental stations, the Hard X-ray Nanoprobe (HXN) beamline and the Full Field X-ray Imaging (FXI) beamline. By combining the capabilities of both beamlines, the researchers were able to visualize the atomic-scale structure and chemical makeup of their sample in 3-D after the battery operated over multiple cycles.
“Both beamlines have world-leading capabilities. You can’t do this research anywhere else,” said Yong Chu, leader of the imaging and microscopy program at NSLS-II and lead beamline scientist at HXN. “FXI is the fastest nanoscale beamline in the world; it’s about ten times faster than any other competitor. HXN is much slower, but it’s much more sensitive—it’s the highest resolution x-ray imaging beamline in the world.”
HXN beamline scientist Xiaojing Huang added, “At HXN, we routinely run measurements in multimodality mode, which means we collect multiple signals simultaneously. In this study, we used a fluorescence signal and a phytography signal to reconstruct a 3-D model of the sample at the nanoscale. The florescence channel provided the elemental distribution, confirming the sample’s composition and uniformity. The phytography channel provided high-resolution structural information, revealing any microcracks in the sample.”
Meanwhile at FXI, “the beamline showed how the valence gradient existed in this material. And because we conducted full-frame imaging at a very high data acquisition rate, we were able to study many regions and increase the statistical reliability of the study,” Lin said.
At the CFN Electron Microscopy Facility, the researchers used an advanced transmission electron microscope (TEM) to visualize the sample with ultrahigh resolution. Compared to the x-ray studies, the TEM can only probe a much smaller area of the sample and is therefore less statistically reliable across the whole sample, but in turn, the data are far more detailed and visually intuitive.
By combining the data collected across all of the different facilities, the researchers were able to confirm the valence gradient played a critical role in battery performance. The valence gradient “hid” the more capacitive but less stable nickel regions in the center of the material, exposing only the more structurally sound nickel at the surface. This important arrangement suppressed the formation of cracks.
The researchers say this work highlights the positive impact concentration gradient materials can have on battery performance while offering a new, complementary approach to stabilize high-nickel-content cathode materials through the valence gradient.
“These findings give us very important guidance for future novel material synthesis and design of cathode materials, which we will apply in our studies going forward,” Lin said.
This study was a collaborative effort among several universities and DOE laboratories, including research teams involved in DOE’s Battery500 Consortium, which aims to make lithium-metal battery cells with an energy density of 500 watt-hours per kilogram, more than double the energy density of today’s state-of-the-art batteries. The research was supported by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Vehicle Technologies Office and DOE’s Office of Science. Additional x-ray experiments were carried out at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) and the Advanced Photon Source (APS), two DOE Office of Science user facilities that are located at DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory, respectively. Operations at NSLS-II, CFN, ALS, and APS are supported by the Office of Science.
Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science.
The local American Legion chapter has a lot going on this month.
The Wilson Ritch Post No. 432, founded in 1919, is asking Suffolk County veterans in the Port Jefferson and Port Jefferson Station area to join in their comradeship and dedication to their country’s heritage, history and constitution.
Earlier this week on Memorial Day, the members payed homage to fallen comrades at the Crowley Park in Port Jefferson Station and Port Jefferson’s Harborfront Park. The event was followed by a dedication of land to the post from the Prechtl family, and a raffle that has earned $1,000 for two scholarships of graduating Comsewogue seniors.
On Saturday, June 5, they will be hosting The Legion’s Convention of 46 county posts. Elected officials from the village, town and county are expected to speak.
People might soon be able to grab their prescriptions, a bag of potato chips and pick up soap as they head into a new therapy service at their local CVS.
The nation’s pharmacy retail giant has started a new service at several of their stores across the U.S. — offering both walk-in and scheduled sessions for mental health treatment. These appointments are available beyond typical daytime hours, including nights and weekends.
According to a spokesperson with CVS Health, the company began adding licensed clinical social workers trained in cognitive behavioral therapy to 13 locations in the Houston, Philadelphia and Tampa metro areas in January of this year.
These providers will offer mental health assessments, referrals and personalized counseling either in person or via telehealth through MinuteClinics inside CVS HealthHUB store locations.
The spokesperson said the company is planning on expanding to 34 locations this spring.
“We anticipate expanding mental health services into additional markets in the coming months,” the representative said in an email. “We expect to have more detailed information soon.”
Rite Aid and Walmart have started similar programs, too.
Dr. Adam Gonzalez. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine
And although MinuteClinics and the like are not available in New York state yet, Dr. Adam Gonzalez, director of behavioral health and founding director of the Mind-Body Clinical Research Center at the Stony Brook Renaissance School of Medicine, said this could potentially be a good day if such facilities were to come close to home.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about many challenges and disruptions to our way of life,” he said. “We have seen an increase in depression, anxiety, increased stress overall and grief responses. Recent mental health data from the CDC also highlights an increase in mental health problems, especially among young adults, and importantly, unmet mental health needs.”
According to Gonzalez, a recent CDC report indicates that during August 2020 through this February “the percentage of adults with recent symptoms of an anxiety or a depressive disorder increased from 36.4% to 41.5%, and the percentage of those reporting an unmet mental health care need increased from 9.2% to 11.7%. Increases were largest among adults aged 18–29 years and those with less than a high school education.”
“There is a great need for mental health awareness and treatment at this time,” Gonzalez added. “A silver lining of the pandemic has been the expansion and use of telehealth as a platform for treatment, allowing patients to participate in mental health treatment from the comfort of their home. However, a limiting factor for accessing care is the availability of providers.”
He said throughout the pandemic, SBU’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health saw a great increase in the need for mental health care — so large, it developed a call center.
“Throughout the pandemic we have consistently been receiving over 7,000 calls per month,” the director said. “Evaluating our outpatient data for the three months before the pandemic and the current last three months, there has been a 50% increase in number of visits scheduled for outpatient mental health services. Of note, the number of visits scheduled is limited by the number of providers available to provide services.”
With the need for mental health providers continuing to grow, Gonzalez said additional services — like the ones at the CVS pharmacy chain — could be helpful.
“I think having services available at CVS could help with normalizing mental health treatment and increasing access to care,” he said. “The more mental health service options available to the community, the better. One consideration is the type and quality of care to be delivered. Although it is important to increase access, we also want to make sure that the quality of care being delivered is high.”
But if and when the retailers open up shop on Long Island, Stony Brook Medicine is working on finding ways to reduce feelings of hopelessness and distress.
“We are actively working on investigating various methods of delivering care to help with increasing access to treatment and addressing the mental health needs of the community,” Gonzalez said.
These methods include expanding group-based services, utilizing a collaborative care model that involves working closely with primary care physicians and behavioral health care managers for medication management, and utilizing skills-based single-session interventions.
“We have been working with Dr. Jessica Schleider in the Department of Psychology at Stony Brook University to implement and study a problem-solving single-session intervention,” he added. “Initial data indicates that these sessions help with improving agency — motivation for change — and reduce feelings of hopelessness and distress.”
Members from the Sound Beach Fire Department held their annual Memorial Day service. Photo by Julianne Mosher
Gone, but never forgotten.
In light of Memorial Day Monday, May 31, the Sound Beach Fire Department held their annual service to remember and mourn the losses of all the men and women who died in the name of freedom.
Chief Darran Handshaw said the department also uses the day to remember their brothers and sisters who are no longer here.
“Over the years, many organizations use this day, as we do, to remember and honor their own deceased members,” he said, addressing the crowd. “So today, the members of the Sound Beach Fire Department and our families, in our own way, observe Memorial Day.”
Handshaw added that this is the department’s 91st year. They wanted to remember and pay homage the members who helped build the foundation of the department that has been around for almost a century.
During the hour-long event, a dozen people sat inside the firehouse, as they listened to members read the names of nearly 50 people who impacted the department in one way or another.
Eight-year-old Rocky Point Cub Scout Mason Ulscheimer kicked off the event with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Family members of the deceased people came up to the podium to say the names of their loved ones, and tears were shed as the department’s honor roll was recited.
“We all should reflect on the freedoms we enjoy as Americans, and on those who die for those freedoms,” said Second Assistant Chief Alex Riley. “To any families of our fallen heroes who are here today, we say, ‘Thank you.’ We owe them and their loved ones our heartfelt gratitude and so much more.”
The event ended with Handshaw, Riley and First Assistant Chief Bill Rosasco placing a wreath at the department’s 9/11 memorial.
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EMT Mark Ulscheimer, First Assistant Chief Bill Rosasco, Mason Ulscheimer, Chief Darran Handshaw and Second Assistant Chief Alex Riley. Photo by Julianne Mosher
Members from the Sound Beach Fire Department held their annual Memorial Day service. Photo by Julianne Mosher
Members from the Sound Beach Fire Department held their annual Memorial Day service. Photo by Julianne Mosher
Mason Ulscheimer starts off the event with the pledge. Photo by Julianne Mosher
Members from the Sound Beach Fire Department held their annual Memorial Day service. Photo by Julianne Mosher
The LoRusso brothers at West Point Academy. Photo from family
“Always remember those service members that died on this day. They did not lose their lives, they gave their life to support the freedom of the American people,” John Fernandez, Shoreham resident.
These are the words of army veteran, 1996 Rocky Point High School and 2001 United States Military Academy graduate Fernandez on the meaning of this national holiday. A combat veteran that was severely wounded in Iraq, he has the constant reminders of his service to America. This local father of six children, recalls the sacrifices of his grandfathers, who both fought during World War II. The North Shore does not have to look far to understand the importance of Memorial Day through the experiences of our local citizens.
Gary Suzik, a resident of Rocky Point, served in the navy from 1963 to 1967. He has the unique experience of being stationed on naval ships that were off the coast of Vietnam, within the Mediterranean Sea, and during the Dominican Crisis in 1965.
Joseph Cognitore, Post 6249 Veterans of Foreign Wars Commander. Photo from family
Suzik was on the first crew to serve on the USS La Salle, where he operated the landing craft that were launched from this ship. While Suzik is a native of Michigan, the La Salle was built in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and it was launched for its duty in 1964. This Vietnam and Cold War veteran’s father fought during the Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944, and his three uncles were in the air force, army and marine corps during World War II.
Longtime resident of Miller Place and Wading River veteran Dan Guida was an army lieutenant. This 76-year-old member of Post 6249 Rocky Point Veterans of Foreign Wars was drafted into the army in 1966.Guida had extensive training as an armor officer at Fort Knox, Kentucky and he was deployed to South Vietnam between 1967 and 1968. He was stationed 50 miles south of Da Nang near the former border between these two warring nations.
Some 54 years ago, Guida vividly identified his time with I Corps in this war, as there were no days off against an enemy that was dangerous and willing to fight at every moment. As a tank platoon leader of tanks and armored personal carriers, Guida is proud of his time in uniform and is always pleased to be with his fellow “brothers in uniform” at Post 6249.
Pat Biglin had a vastly different military job than many of his fellow comrades at this post. From 1963 to 1967, Biglin was in the air force where he was stationed in Turkey, only 60 miles away from the former Soviet Union. As a young man, he spied on this communist Super Power on a base that was located on the Black Sea, that was situated in north eastern portion of this North Atlantic Treaty Organization power.
Biglin’s position was part of the security service that was made up of 1% of all members of the air force through its ability to analyze communication and intelligence transmissions from this former enemy.This special unit tracked every plane that took off within the Soviet Union and he broke coded messages that were sent directly to the National Security Agency. Always armed with a big smile and a can-do attitude, Biglin continues to serve Post 6249 as its military chaplain.
A resident from Middle Island Glenn Ziomek was a finance administrator that was sent to Frankfurt, Germany after the end of the Vietnam War. While this was a difficult period for this country after the loss of Vietnam, Ziomek recalled that the morale was good among American soldiers at this European army base.
Joseph Cognitore, Post 6249 Veterans of Foreign Wars Commander. Photo from family
He enjoyed the traveling throughout Germany and Austria, the culture of these countries, and personally speaking to these people. But he vividly remembered hostile anarchy that was created by the German terrorist group Baader Meinhof Gang that caused havoc near the American military bases.
For Ziomek, Memorial Day is a moment where he likes to think of his father who served in the navy during World War II and his uncle who survived the D-Day landings, who was later shot in the arm and wounded.
Since the creation of this republic, there has always been family ties of defense of this country. You do not have to look far to notice the strength of character of patriotism that is still demonstrated today by Tom and Ray Semkow. Like many families, their parents endured many stressful times, as these two sons were involved within continuous fighting over several years in South Vietnam.
A city boy that grew up on the Lower Eastside of Manhattan, Ray entered the United States Marine Corps in 1965. After he graduated from boot camp at Paris Island, South Carolina, he was sent to South Vietnam. Overseas, Ray was a mechanic and a door gunman that was attached to the I Corps out of Phu Bai, that was near the city of Hue.
Ray flew countless missions in the Quang Tri Province to pick up numerous casualties, where he helped bring them to safety for medical attention. He also conducted classified operations that saw him enter Laos to deter the enemies use of the Ho Chi Minh Trail that supplied the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong with soldiers and supplies.
Before Tom was sent to Vietnam, he spent two weeks with his brother, who returned home from completing his duty in this war-torn country. In 1968, Tom was a combat medic in the army’s 5th Special Forces that was in the Mekong Delta during deadliest year of this war during the Tet Offensive.
Tom trained South Vietnamese soldiers and he identified the terrible losses amongst the civilians and the many children that were killed and wounded by booby-traps that were used by the Viet Cong.
On this Memorial Day, he thinks of the losses that were felt by his own men during the extremely dangerous days of Tet against the enemy. Both brothers still serve today through their devoted efforts of Post 6249 into making this community into a better place.
The LoRusso brothers at West Point Academy. Photo from family
Mike Biscardi is a younger member of Post 6249 that served in the army from 2009 to 2018. He was a military police officer that was attached to the 800th Military Police out of Fort Totten, New York, and the 305th that was in Wheeling, West Virginia.
This local veteran was sent to Bagram, Afghanistan and later to Germany through “Operation of the Atlantic” to monitor the Russian invasion of the Crimea, Ukraine. Most recently, Biscardi has been deployed to Jones Beach to help the New York Department of Health to administer the COVID-19 vaccination shots. On this Memorial Day, he recalls the military service of his good friend from Shoreham who had passed away. To remember this lost service member, he participates in the annual Michael P. Murphy four-mile race around Lake Ronkonkoma to honor his good friend.
And always next to these veterans from various conflicts and times within every branch of the military is Joseph A. Cognitore. This long-time commander of Post 6249, served in Vietnam as a platoon sergeant, that fought in Cambodia, and was awarded the Bronze Star.
Ever since the first Gulf War, Cognitore’s has always presented an iron will to help the veterans of this community, state and nation. On Memorial Day, Cognitore thinks of the army soldiers that fought with him at the end of the Vietnam War, and his own son — graduate of Rocky Point High School — Joseph Jr., that is currently serving as a colonel in the army.
Like that of the Semkow brothers, this part of the North Shore has a multitude of families that have seen their loved ones enter the military. Nicholas, Kevin, Brian and Larry LoRusso were talented athletes and all attended West Point where they played lacrosse.
Three of the brothers, Kevin, Brian and Larry served as platoon leaders within the field artillery and Nicholas was an engineer that also taught military sciences at this school. Currently, Nicholas is still in the army as a major, and was deployed to Iraq in 2009 and Afghanistan in 2012.
A former captain of the Army lacrosse team, Kevin served in Afghanistan in 2011. Three of the older brothers are married and they have started families of their own.
On this Memorial Day, Nicholas said, “I was able to come home, where other service members did not.On this date, I hug my kids a little tighter and give my wife an extra kiss.”
Kevin wants to remember his lost classmates and soldiers that he was deployed with overseas. He believed that these soldiers were the “true heroes” that he honors on this holiday.
A graduate of Rocky Point High School in 2013, Matthew N. Amoscato, attended the United States Maritime Academy at Kings Point, New York, graduating in 2018 with a degree in marine engineering.
Matthew Amoscatto. Photo from family
Right now, Amoscato is training to become a pilot in Pensacola, Florida and Corpus Christi, Texas. Currently he lives in Oklahoma, where he is undergoing survival training in Coronado, California. This pilot of E-6 B Mercury Boeing 707 military aircraft would like to thank all those men and women that have “carried the torch of duty” before his time in the navy.
Craig McNabb, a current Suffolk County Corrections Officer, and the son of a veteran that fought in Iraqi Freedom, believes there is more to Memorial Day than “BBQ’s and a shopping holiday.”
A graduate of Rocky Point High School in 2014, he was trained as a Protection Service Detail that ensured the security of high-ranking officers, and American and foreign political officials at Bagram and Kabul, Afghanistan. He personally escorted former Secretary of Defense leaders of Ash Carter and James Mattis.
McNabb was stationed in this tumultuous nation during a dangerous period of when the Taliban utilized explosives to strike fear and losses into the American military and the civilian population.
Rocky Point High School Social Studies Teacher Bill Weinhold spent several years in the United States Coast Guard before entering the classroom. This teacher and coach is the youngest veteran to be serving in this school district.
Weinhold remembers Memorial Day of 2010, “as my first military holiday in the service. I had been on my ship for several months at this point and was underway on the USCGC Naushon running fisheries enforcement missions. I remember the cool, rainy Southeast Alaskan spring day handling lines for the small boat we would launch to intercept fishing vessels to ensure they were acting in compliance with Alaskan and federal regulations.”
It is not difficult to see the positive influence of the Coast Guard on the daily routines that Weinhold presents to his students through his teaching and coaching abilities.
Thank you to those veterans that continue to make this nation extremely proud of their on-going service to defend the United States. Especially those graduates from the North Shore that have fought within every branch of the military.
Rocky Point High School students Madelynn Zarzychi and Sean Hamilton helped write this article.
Rich Acritelli is a social studies teacher at Rocky Point High School and an adjunct professor of American history at Suffolk County Community College.
The goal is to help people in need and break the stigma surrounding “that time of the month.”
Samantha Schwab, a 17-year-old junior at Comsewogue High School decided last year that she wanted to become involved with a national group that has a very specific cause — menstrual products.
Her Drive is a Chicago-based nonprofit that provides bras, menstrual care and general hygiene products to people in need in an effort to combat period and hygiene poverty.
“I love the idea around it,” she said. “We have no idea how [limited access to personal and hygiene products] impacts people in our community.”
Photo from Samantha Schwab
From May 7 through June 9, people can donate products to the pink-colored box inside the Comsewogue Public Library — located at 170 Terryville Road in Port Jefferson Station.
Accepted donations include pads, tampons, individually wrapped pantyliners, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, deodorant, toothpaste, masks, baby wipes, diapers, bras and socks.
Schwab said this is the very first local drive for the organization on all of Long Island. So far, she has received 6,000 menstrual products and 300 general hygiene products from the one location.
“I am overwhelmed by the generosity in the community,” she said. “My house is currently filled with boxes, and it makes me feel good to know that we’re helping people in need.”
She said that she will soon be dispersing the products among several local nonprofits, including Give Kids Hope Inc., in Port Jefferson Station.
People who want to donate to the local Her Drive efforts can drop off products to the library or send Schwab a package using her Amazon Wishlist here.
With the Memorial Day weekend behind us, it’s time to enjoy outdoor get-togethers such as barbecues and lazy days on the beach. Unfortunately, this time of year also means more drivers under the influence on our roads and more inexperienced ones, too.
When attending a party, it’s pretty simple. If you plan on drinking alcohol or ingesting other substances that can impair your senses, make sure you have a plan. There is no excuse for driving under the influence. Once upon a time, someone who planned on drinking needed to have a designated driver, plan to sleep over at the place where they were partying or call a taxi. Sometimes many partiers found themselves with a designated person who decided they would have a little fun, too. Or, with no room to sleep at the house where the party was held or a taxi that never showed up, they then got behind the wheel of a car and took off. Nowadays, with phone apps to order car services such as Uber or Lyft, there’s no excuse for driving under the influence of any substance.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2019, 10,142 people lost their lives due to drunk-driving crashes in the U.S. That’s 10,142 lives that were lost unnecessarily. But there is even more to watch out for on the road during those hot months besides drunk drivers.
Memorial Day to Labor Day has become known as the “100 deadliest days” of the year as the teen driver death rate increases. According to AAA, from the unofficial start of summer to its unofficial end, there are “more fatal crashes per day, on average, involving teen drivers compared to the rest of the year.”
A study by AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found more than 7,000 teens died in such crashes from 2010-19 in the U.S. In New York state, during the same period, 473 teen drivers died in car crashes. Risk factors include teens lack of driving skills and experiences behind the wheel and the unstructured time that summer brings with kids out of school and not having as many activities such as sports and clubs. There are also other risk factors such as texting while driving, running red lights, driving aggressively and not wearing a seat belt.
What can one do when they’re traveling the roads besides watching out for drivers who are weaving in or out or running red lights? The best thing is to set an example of good driving habits on the road, especially when young people are in the passenger seats, which means cinching that seat belt, no texting or talking on the phone, no eating or drinking while steering.
And to play a part in keeping impaired drivers off the road, of course, when you’re hosting a party, make arrangements for your guests who will be indulging themselves.
The summertime should be time for fun, not for tears. Let’s keep the roads in our community safe, not only for the next few months but all year long. It just takes making a few wise decisions.
I’m not much of a planner. I put together professional plans, creating a schedule for stories I’d like to research and write, and I coordinate calls and meetings all week, but I don’t tend to go through the calendar to figure out when to visit socially with friends and family or to attend cultural events.
This summer, however, I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to look at the calendar and consider a wide range of activities that would have been difficult or impossible a year ago.
I’m delighted to plan to visit with my extended family. I haven’t seen my brothers in over 19 months. I have visited with them on the phone and zoom, but that’s not nearly the same thing as seeing them in person, throwing a ball with them, flying a kite off the beach or just sitting on the couch and having a free-flowing conversation.
I am also delighted to consider planning a trip to museums. On one of our first dates, my wife and I went to the Metropolitan Museum, where we wandered slowly through the exhibits, continuing to build on our relationship even as we studied the artifacts left behind by the generations that fell in love and married hundreds of years earlier. I recall wandering through those wide hallways close to a quarter of a century ago, listening to my wife’s stories and delighting in laughter that, even now, provides validation and meaning to each moment.
I am hoping to travel to Washington, D.C., this summer, to see the air and space museum. Each of the planes hovers overhead, and the space capsules from the early days of the NASA program are inspirational, giving me a chance to picture the world from a different vantage point, seeing the shimmering blue waters that cover the Earth.
I have watched planes fly overhead throughout the pandemic, but I haven’t ventured to the airport or onto a plane. I’m looking forward to the opportunity that flight provides to turn trips that would take over 10 hours into one- or two-hour flights.
Visiting family, friends and strangers in different areas, eating foods that are different and unfamiliar and experiencing life outside of the small circles in which we’ve restricted ourselves opens up the possibilities for the summer and beyond.
My son can prepare for the start of college and my daughter for a return to college with the hope that they can enjoy more of the academic, social, extracurricular and community service experiences that they imagined when they envisioned these years of growth, development and, hopefully, independence.
I spoke with a scientist recently who told me that the inspiration for a work he’d just completed came from a conversation he had during a conference a few years ago. He had been sitting in an auditorium, listening to a speech, when he and a stranger exchanged thoughts about the implications of the work. From that interaction, he started a new project that became a productive and central focus of his research efforts. As soon as conferences are back on the calendar, he hopes to return to the road, where such unexpected and unplanned conversations can trigger inspiration.
To be sure, I recognize that the realities of travel and planning don’t always dovetail with the hopes and expectations. I recently visited with our extended community at a social gathering, where I stood downwind of someone who wore so much cologne that I couldn’t taste the food I was eating.
I’m sure there’ll also be lines, traffic jams and literal and figurative turbulence as I leave our home cocoon.
Still, this summer, I’ll be grateful for the opportunity to do so much, including and especially, the chance to plan.
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