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Authors Posts by Rita J. Egan

Rita J. Egan

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Emmy Specht delivers groceries to her neighbors in Bellport. Photo by Joanne Specht

Since schools shut their doors back in March, one student from The Stony Brook School has been keeping busy helping her neighbors in Bellport to beat food insecurities.

Emmy Specht among food items donated by friends and neighbors. Photo from Joanne Specht

Emmy Specht is spearheading a food drive and fundraising effort for those who have been struggling to buy groceries because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 17-year-old has been buying and collecting the food and then boxing up and delivering groceries to recipients.

Specht said a few weeks ago she had the idea to start a food drive and contacted Yolanda Lucas, the Day Care and Family Support coordinator at Boys & Girls Club of the Bellport Area. Lucas connected her with those who she knew needed help. Specht started spreading the word, and soon friends and neighbors were dropping off food on her front porch. When she heard that classmates and relatives in the Three Village area wanted to donate but were unable to make the drive to drop off items, she created the fundraising page Food for Suffolk County.

Lucas said she has been impressed by Specht’s endeavor, and how the high school senior took the initiative to contact her and is running the drive on her own. Lucas said it gives her a renewed sense of hope about young people.

“She’s doing it out of a concern for others,” Lucas said.

Specht, who has traveled to school in the Three Village area since she began her academic career in the Laurel Hill School, has been able to deliver food to 10 families each week, and so far she has raised $7,000. She added that her guidance counselor, Debbie Abrahamsen, whose husband, Stan, owns the Chick-fil-A in Port Jefferson, even contributed 30 gift cards for meals which include a sandwich, side and a drink, which she said is helpful for families to get a hot meal.

“It’s really amazing, and I’m really appreciative, especially since I know it’s a challenging time for everyone,” Specht said.

Abrahamsen said she cried when she heard about the student’s endeavor, especially since she recognized that as a senior Specht may be grieving the loss of prom and graduation.

“Instead of it being about her, she’s helping those in need,” the guidance counselor said. “I just think that’s amazing. How many high school seniors have that type of compassion.”

Every week, Specht aims to have three boxes for each family, and even though she isn’t able to meet them face-to-face, Specht has interacted with some from a distance.

Recently, the student received an email from a woman asking for help. The woman had seen the groceries her son had received from Specht and explained to the student how she was disabled, and her fiancé is an essential worker. She lives separately from her son, who has his own family, and in addition to her children living with her and her partner, there is also her mother who lives with them. In the email, the woman said they were using rent money to buy food. The high school senior said thanks to the generous donations she has received; she was able to help the mother’s household too.

Emmy Specht prepares boxes for a recipient. Photo by Joanne Specht

Specht is no stranger to philanthropy. She and her sister Rae, along with friends Maddie Joinnides and Eloise Kocay, founded Four Girls for Families. The nonprofit was inspired by a family visit to Cambodia. Specht’s father, Brian, works for Tara Toy Corporation and travels to China regularly. One year when the family accompanied him on a work trip, they paid a visit to Cambodia.

She said being in Cambodia and seeing kids her age who were unable to have essentials such as an education and clean water affected her greatly.

“That was unsettling to see kids my own age going through something so hard,” she said.

While she and her family visit the country every year, a trip planned for this June had to be canceled due to the pandemic.

Her mother, Joanne Specht, said she wasn’t surprised when Emmy started her food drive as she has always had a soft spot for others, and in addition to Four Girls for Families, her daughter volunteers at Sunrise Day Camp in Wyandanch, which is a camp for children with cancer.

“She’s always looking for ways to help people,” the mother said. “She’s got a very kind heart.”

Emmy Specht said the new fundraising project has taught her about the problems people face on Long Island.

“I’ve never really seen the kinds of needs that are here on Long Island,” she said. “It’s not on the other side of the world. There are also problems here.”

For more information on how to donate to the food drive, visit foodforsuffolkcounty.org.

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By The Rositzke Family and Rita J. Egan

Longtime community member Ernest T. Rositzke, died April 30. He was 94.

He is survived by his wife, Ruth, of 73 years who continues to reside at Jefferson’s Ferry.

Before their move there, they were longtime residents of Stony Brook. For 60 years, Ernie was a proud, active member of the Stony Brook Fire Department. Having served as chief and commissioner, he was most honored when he received their Fireman of the Year award in 2018. The family was told that the award wasn’t given out easily and some years they don’t give it out at all.

He also enjoyed spending time at the Stony Brook Yacht Club where he served a term as commodore. He was involved with the American Legion and for 22 years, worked with and delivered for Three Village Meals on Wheels. His most famous volunteer role, however, was that of the “real Santa” in and around the area including Stony Brook Village Green and Stony Brook University Hospital.

He was born in 1926, attended Andrew Jackson High School and served with the Marines during WWII. Ernie worked for the New York Telephone Company and the Town of Brookhaven.

In addition to his wife, Ruth, he will be lovingly remembered by his children, Christine DeAngelo (Lou), Ernest T. Rositzke, Jr. (Lynn) and Karen Fink (David). He is also survived by four grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren as well as his sister, Jackie Schecher of Springfield Centre. Ernie was preceeded in death by his half-brother, Arthur Rohrlack.

Walter Hazlitt said he knew Rositzke for more than 60 years through the fire department. The two had a common bond not only as fellow volunteer firefighters but also as veterans and members of the yacht club. He described him as a generous person.

“He’s going to be sorely missed,” he said. “You can’t extol him too much. He was an exception to the rule.”

Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket) remembered his work as Santa.

“Most of my life my contact with Ernie was exclusively through the Stony Brook Fire Department with the most memorable interactions being him as Santa Claus at the member family Christmas parties,” she said. “Ernie was happy — jolly even. He was patient and kind with the children, spending what felt like hours listening to each child rattle off their wish lists or screaming in his ear because they were too young and too afraid. Posing for multiple photos with infants, toddlers, little kids, big kids teenagers, college students, families. It wasn’t just his white beard that was genuine —he was the real deal. He truly cared and wanted to make each and every child happy. Volunteer firefighter through-and-through, in the end, it was his mission to help. On a call, he would help protect our community. At Christmas, he would help each and every family have fun and bring a little hope and joy to the season.”

Diane Melidosian, a board member for Three Village Meals on Wheels, said, “His quiet demeanor and wonderful sense of humor will be missed.”

Liz Bongiorno, a TBR News Media sales rep, remembered meeting Rositzke when she worked for an indoor playground. The owner had asked him if he could play Santa.  Bongiorno started talking to him and found out he not only lived in the neighborhood where she grew up, but was also friends with her grandfather. He started telling her about her grandfather, who she had never met and called him a gentle giant.

“It was the best Christmas gift that I ever received in my life,” Bongiorno said.

Whenever she would see Rositzke at chamber meetings, she always told him that no one had ever given her a better gift.

Gloria Rocchio, president of The Ward Melville Heritage Organization, said she knew Rositzke for more than 35 years when he worked in the Town of Brookhaven’s highway department and in his role as the “real Santa.”

“He started to grow his beard in August, and changed into the real Santa on the first Sunday in December every year,” she said. “He would sit for four hours at the Stony Brook Post Office, listening attentively to each child’s wishes. The line to see him started over one hour ahead of his arrival.”

Rocchio said one year when WMHO decided to add another Santa, Rositzke thought it may confuse the children. They never had two Santas after that.

“He heard so many sad stories, and it bothered him that he could not fulfill their wishes,” Rocchio said. “So WMHO created the Santa Fund. Each year we still raise funds for clothing and toys for those in need. Initially, he told us which homes to go to. Many people would say, ‘I saw him when I was a child and now I am bringing my children.’ We never thought he would stop, because Santa is immortal, but he did. However, his spirit of kindness will always live on in the people that he touched.”

Arrangements were entrusted to Bryant Funeral Home of East Setauket. A celebration of his life will be held in the future.

Donations in his honor can be made to: Three Village Meals on Wheels, P.O. Box 853, Stony Brook, NY  11790.

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Protesters hung signs on their cars at a May 1 rally. Photo by Lorraine Yovino

Protesters in Commack May 1 made it clear that they wanted New York to get back to business.

A protester in Commack joins others in asking for all nonessential businesses in New York to be reopened. Photo by Lorraine Yovino

Dozens lined up in front of the Macy’s parking lot at the intersection of Veterans Memorial Highway and Jericho Turnpike rallying for New York to open up its economy. For weeks, after an executive order from Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), businesses deemed nonessential such as clothing stores, hair salons, barbershops, casinos and more were mandated to shut their doors to customers to slow down the spread of the coronavirus.

The rally was organized through the Reopen NY Facebook page, and similar events have been held across the country in the last few weeks.

These protests have taken a politically partisan edge, with many wearing “Make America Great Again” hats and waving “Trump 2020” signs in support of President Donald Trump (R).

Protesters held signs while others hung them on their cars. One read, “If it’s forced, are we free. Reopen NY Now.” Another sign said, “Small business is essential.” One car had an “Impeach dictator Cuomo” sign on its window, while a protester held a sign that read, “Stop the spread of tyranny.” One woman held two signs where one read, “All jobs are essential” and the other, “Hey Cuomo, domestic violence and poverty does equal death.”

Among those lining the street, some wore masks while others had no face covering. Children were among the protesters with their parents, many holding signs as well.

Setauket resident George Altemose attended the event with friends from the North Country Patriots, a conservative group that rallies on the northeast corner of Bennetts and North Country roads in Setauket every Saturday morning.

“I was there because of the ongoing COVID-19 problem, to show my support for President Trump and to express my disapproval of the misguided policies of Governor Cuomo, Mayor De Blasio and other politicians that are counterproductive in our battle to restore our normal lives,” Altemose said in an email after the rally.

He said he was pleased that he attended the May 1 rally.

“It was a most refreshing and uplifting experience to gather with hundreds of like-minded friends and neighbors in Commack, and to enjoy the enthusiastic responses from the passing motorists, the majority of whom took the time to wave, blow their horns and give us the “thumbs up” sign,” he said. “It looks like Nov. 3 will be a day to remember.”

For Altemose, the protests were about more than the closings. He said he has taken issue with a few of Cuomo’s mandates, including that nursing homes must admit those afflicted with the virus, “even though they are not hospitals and are not even close to being equipped to deal with a problem of this nature and magnitude.”

Altemose applauded the president’s performance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“President Trump has provided outstanding leadership from the earliest possible day of this crisis, including the placement of responsibility where it belongs,” he said.

Lorraine Yovino, from Hauppauge, said in a phone interview after the protest she was delighted to see so many people show up for the rally.

“The whole atmosphere was so positive and so hopeful,” she said. “It was just a very happy, hopeful group. I was so pleased to see so many young people too.”

Yovino said she has attended rallies in the past including the March for Life protests in Washington, D.C. and others in Albany. She heard about the May 1 rally through friends.

She said the Macy’s parking lot turned out to be an ideal place for everyone to park and protest as the lot was empty, unlike the Target parking lot in the next shopping center which was full.

“It’s unfair that the Target salespeople are considered essential, while the Macy’s people are nonessential,” she said. “One group gets a salary to support their families, and the other group is impoverished.”

While Yovino said she understands that there was not much information known about the virus at first, she said she feels experimental treatments, such as the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine may be helpful to many. Though it has shown in cases to help treat the virus, it is still largely untested and has shown to cause heart issues in some who use it.

“It’s no longer justified to put American citizens into poverty and not let them go to work, not let them open their businesses, not let them support their families,” she said.

Yovino said she believes Trump has been doing a good job when it comes to dealing with COVID-19, and people need to ask more questions regarding the local elected officials’  response to the pandemic.

“My heart is going out to so many people who are unnecessarily having their freedom taken away,”
she said. “Their constitutional rights are being trampled on.”

Earlier this week, Cuomo said that businesses in the state will begin opening after the May 15 pause deadline. However, the first nonessential businesses to open will be in areas with lower density in upstate New York, with those in the city and Long Island to follow at a later date. Currently, Suffolk and Nassau counties have not met much of the criteria set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control for any kind of reopening.

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Maddie (dressed as a shark), Laura and Joseph Mastriano get ready for a night of social distancing bingo on Facebook Live. Photo from Laura Mastriano

A Stony Brook event planner and her family are using their downtime to channel their creative energy through a classic game — bingo.

As nonessential businesses were mandated to shut down via executive order by state Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) back in March, Laura Mastriano, founder of L.A. Productions Events, found herself with some extra time on her hands. Throughout the year, she plans weddings, birthday parties and other events for clients, including TBR News Media’s Cooks, Books & Corks and the Three Village Kids Lemonade Stand that was founded by her children Joseph and Maddie.

Mastriano said conversations about possible event postponements began early with clients when news of the coronavirus hitting the U.S. first spread. Even early in March, a venue owner told her they couldn’t go ahead with a communion she was planning in May.

“It’s a lot to swallow, but I’m trying to stay as positive as possible,” Mastriano said.

What helps her stay positive, she added, is holding on to knowing that one day everyone will want to celebrate outside of their homes again. 

The Facebook Live bingo came about when she wanted to think of something to keep busy for a while. She also realized that her parents, Rich and Terri Adell, wouldn’t be able to visit her family regularly, and she wanted to keep connected with them.

“Part of this bingo was for them to have something to do,” the event planner said, adding now that soon many others were tuning in to see what the Mastrianos had come up with as a theme and how the family decorated the bingo table and its surroundings.

Every night for more than 40 days, Mastriano, Maddie and Joseph have dressed up and led the bingo games, while the event planner’s husband, Joe, is behind the camera. Each night they chose a different theme. The event planner said she finds inspiration from her storage shed where she has items from past events tucked away. She said one piece of foam board has been used and repurposed to fit the many themes the family has used.

“I’m trying to be as resourceful as possible,” she said, adding that planning the live streaming events has also been therapeutic.

The family has included themes such as  Disney, circus, the 1980s, gaming and more. An April 26 football-themed bingo game attracted nearly 300 players, many who commented on their favorite past football games.

Mastriano said her daughter has been wearing a shark costume that incorporates the evening’s theme and has become known as Sharkie, while her son has been keeping track of the items called off the bingo card. Her husband will read off the names of those participating in the Facebook Live and their comments during the event. Sometimes, she said, the family’s English bulldog Phoebe will even make an appearance dressed up in the theme just like the rest of the family.

Mastriano said her parents have invited their friends to come play, and her mother and best friend in Georgia will spend the day planning out what to wear and taking selfies of themselves all dressed up. Many other family members and friends have also joined in the fun and are finding old photos of themselves that fit the theme and share to the event planner’s social media page.

To participate, game players visit Mastriano’s Facebook page earlier in the day to find out the theme and print out the game card. Participants have even been making their own game cards when they don’t have a printer.

The event planner said the family will continue to have the bingo games until the end of the mandatory closings. She has been pleased with everyone’s positive responses, but she knows it can’t compare to what others have been doing.

“Compared to the amount of work that everyone else is putting in out there, like all the first responders, this is nothing,” Mastriano said. “Our goal in this whole thing is to just provide a smile, a small distraction and hopefully provide a little fun.”

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Scott November leaves the rehabilitation center with his wife, Shelley, at the wheel. Photo from the November family

One Northport resident’s experience with the coronavirus led him to the brink of death, and now that he’s back at home, he’s beyond grateful for those who nursed him back to health.

The Novembers with their children and grandchildren. Photo from the November family

Scott November, 66, was Huntington Hospital’s first ventilated patient who has survived and recovered from COVID-19. After a journey that took him from at first not being able to be tested for the virus and trying to recoup at home, to a hospital visit that led to him being on a ventilator, November has now put 10 days of rehabilitation and more than a week of at-home quarantine behind him. As of April 24, he was finally able to see family members, even though it was from a distance.

“I was really exceptionally well and lovingly cared for in the hospital,” November said.

The father and grandfather, who is a purchasing and global operations manager for a brass fitting company in Brooklyn, said early in March he attended parties for his grandchildren. He said he was feeling fine, moving tables and kissing and hugging everyone.

The next day he went to work and felt good at the office and driving home at the end of the workday. However, when he arrived home and sat down for dinner, he began to shake violently. He had the chills, and when he took his temperature, he had a fever of 100.6 degrees. He laid down in the guest room and decided to stay in there until he got better as he didn’t want to infect his wife, he said.

Despite trips to two different urgent care facilities, he wasn’t tested for the coronavirus at the beginning of his illness as he wasn’t presenting with all the symptoms, and he was just given flu tests which came out negative.

November, who has psoriatic arthritis and diabetes, said looking back he understands why he wasn’t tested at the time as there weren’t enough tests available. When he made a second trip to one of the urgent care locations, he was given an X-ray to see if he had pneumonia. While the health care professionals there read it as negative, it was sent out to a radiologist who noticed spots on his lungs and saw pneumonia.

November said he took his health in his own hands and spoke with an administrator at the urgent care and his call was passed on to one of the heads of the chain, who went through his information and saw the radiologist’s report. It was then the Northport resident was told to get tested for COVID-19. He was able to get the test March 16, but that night his symptoms worsened. His wife called his primary physician where she was instructed to call an ambulance.

EMT personnel soon showed up in full hazmat uniforms, and he was brought to the emergency room at Huntington Hospital. He said the new emergency center has individual rooms with doors so he was able to be isolated as he was in a room for two days until it was determined he should be taken to the critical care unit and be put on a ventilator. Though, he said, he has no recollection of the move to the CCU as he was in a medically-induced coma.

He called the nurses heroes and added that they can’t practice social distancing like others while caring for patients. All they have between themselves and the patients, he added, are gloves, sheer gowns and face coverings.

“They have to trust that they’ll stay safe,” he said. “They’re heroes. They went beyond the extra mile.”

“It’s so important for families and caregivers to have a bond and have communication. It made me a real person.”

— Scott November

November said he is grateful that his caregivers did everything they could to keep in touch with his family regularly through phone calls and FaceTime and answered their questions about his condition since COVID-19 guidelines prevent visitors at hospitals.

“It’s so important for families and caregivers to have a bond and have communication,” he said. “It made me a real person.”

To make up for the lack of family interaction, the nurses hung up family photos and his grandchildren’s drawings on the hospital room walls. His wife, Shelley, said the health care workers felt her family’s desperation, and at times nurses would fix her husband’s hair and even stroke his head to comfort him.

November said he was told there were several patients in the CCU while he was there, and he witnessed health care professionals scrambling to learn more about the novel virus, even joining online forums to talk to other nurses and doctors around the country.

November is grateful to be alive, he said, as he heard that others on ventilators lost their battles against the virus. Not only that, he almost died himself. His wife had received a call during his stint in the hospital that he was close to death, but the nurses tried one more thing. They heard that putting patients in a prone position helped to increase oxygen intake, and they decided to put him on his stomach. The move worked.

While November was in the hospital, his wife, who is 65, also came down with the coronavirus, though she didn’t need to be hospitalized. She said while she was fortunate not to be admitted to the hospital, it was tough dealing with everything, and when she was at her worst, her husband was also at his. Both she and her husband are grateful that their children Jordan, Courtney and Remy were able to help out, leaving groceries by their mother’s door when she needed to quarantine.

When the husband was finally extubated and able to leave the CCU, he said he had no core strength and wasn’t self-sufficient so he was sent to a rehab facility. Then days after entering rehab, he was able to walk 300 feet, climb three flights of stairs and become self-sufficient enough to use the bathroom and groom himself on his own. 

On April 17 he left rehab, and after eight days of quarantining at home, he said he was thrilled to see his family, even if it was from a distance. 

“There were prayers to God, to Jesus, to Allah. There were prayers to everybody on my behalf.”

— Scott November

When it comes to getting through the rough times, November said he is a big believer in science and knows everything the doctors and nurses did and all the research being done played a part in his recovery. Calling himself an agnostic, he added he also believes it has something to do with the diverse groups of friends he and his wife, as well as his children, have.

“There were prayers to God, to Jesus, to Allah,” November said. “There were prayers to everybody on my behalf.”

He said his recovery and being able to unite with his family is bittersweet though, because he knows of the many lives that have been lost to the coronavirus. Knowing that he is also concerned for those who have not been able to mourn for their loved ones with funerals and services.

“They’re not a number. Each one of them is  a human being,” he said. “Mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, children, grandchildren, coworkers, friends — they have their camaraderie.”

His wife agreed that families are destroyed, and it’s frustrating for nurses who put the same efforts into everyone’s care.

“It’s really hard to understand why he was spared,” she said. “Why did the universe have mercy on us and not others, and it’s hard to live with that.”

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FIle photo

Suffolk County Police arrested a man for allegedly making graffiti in Smithtown this morning.

Responding to a 911 call, a SCPD 4th Precinct patrol officer observed Anthony Garcia painting graffiti on a bus stop shelter, located on Nesconset Highway near Terry Road, at approximately 12:30 a.m. Recent graffiti was also observed on a second bus stop shelter nearby.

Garcia, 30, of Patchogue, was arrested and charged with making graffiti and possession of graffiti instruments, both misdemeanors. He was issued a desk appearance ticket and is scheduled to be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip May 15.

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Barry Chandler delivers food to the Suffolk County Police Headquarters. Photo from Nissequogue Golf Club

It was a hole in one for Stony Brook University Hospital workers April 5 when the Nissequogue Golf Club donated 600 meals to the facility. The club followed up that act of kindness with a donation of 120 meals to the Suffolk County Police Headquarters in Yaphank April 16.

Nissequogue Golf Club staff members deliver food to SBU hospital. Photo from Nissequogue Golf Club

According to the club’s general manager, Barry Chandler, the hot, homemade meals included meatballs and rigatoni. The club also donated 25 cases of bottled water to the hospital.

Chandler approached the club’s president Art Seeberger with the idea of donating to the hospital and Seeberger then asked the club’s board for approval. The club’s president then made the initial contribution of $500, and Chandler matched it.

The planning process began with Chandler contacting the hospital to ensure all the details were covered before the delivery. The 1,600 meatballs, 200 pounds of rigatoni and 110 gallons of sauce which made up the first meals for hospital workers were prepared by the club’s chef Joseph Badalato and his kitchen crew. Chandler said meatballs were an easy choice for the meals.

“Our chef is Italian, and we love his meatballs,” he said. “So he gets the whole gang together in the kitchen, anyone who can help, and we start rolling meatballs based on his specifications.”

When it came to the delivery to Stony Brook University Hospital, club member Ann Shybunko-Moore lent her truck to transport the meals, and Seeberger, Chandler, Badalato and sous chef Vince Minelli made the delivery. Chandler said SBU had someone greet them at the door with carts and hospital employees brought the food in so the volunteers didn’t have to step inside the hospital.

According to the golf club manager, other hospitals and first responders were reaching out to its offices to see if they too may have their first responders fed by Nissequogue Golf Club. A wife of one of the workers at Suffolk County Police Headquarters heard about the golf club’s good dead and asked if food could be delivered to the Yaphank facility. Chandler said the club received a card after the delivery signed by more than 50 of the employees at headquarters.

The golf club staff is currently discussing the next group to feed, which most likely will be health care workers at another hospital.

Pictured, Nissequogue Golf Club staff members deliver food to SBU hospital, top and bottom left; bottom right Barry Chandler delivers food to the Suffolk County Police Headquarters. 

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In March Three Village Civic Association volunteers, including board member Sotiria Tzakas, delivered food to the Three Village Central School District food pantry. Photo from Three Village Civic Association

The Three Village Civic Association is doing its part to help the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The civic association sent an email April 10 to inform members that the group established a Helping Hands program with the aim to deliver up to $100 groceries per week to anyone who needs them.

Those who are unable to leave the house because they may be infected, are one of the people at high risk or are having financial difficulties as a result of the pandemic, can reach out to the civic association for help. Volunteers will shop, pay for and deliver the groceries. Residents who receive assistance are asked to contribute to the program if they can do so.

TVCA President Jonathan Kornreich said more than a dozen people asked for assistance during the first week of the program. He said that more than 20 people have offered to volunteer to help.

“The community is so amazing and ready to help,” Kornreich said, adding that local residents have sent in donations totaling $2,500 so far.

In March the civic association also picked up bags of donated items from residents’ curbs for the Three Village Central School District food pantry.

For more information, visit www.threevillagecivics.org.

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Members of the Huntington Community First Aid Squad pick up face shields at Zaro’s Cafe. Photo from Zaro's Cafe

A Huntington Station restaurant owner decided to make use of his establishment’s dining room while remaining open for takeout during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Edmund Zarou assembles face shields. Photo from. Zaro’s Cafe

Edmund Zarou, of Zaro’s Cafe, has turned the family-owned Greek and Italian eatery into a staging area to create plastic face shields for first responders. The restaurant has been able to produce several shields a day with the use of 3D printing technology and to date has made 500 copies of the protective gear.

Zarou said in an email that he recognized the need for medical supplies as the coronavirus quickly spread in the area.

“We wanted to turn a negative into a positive,” the restaurant owner said, adding he owns four 3D printers from another one of his businesses.

“When I realized I could make these shields it was a no-brainer,” he said. “We immediately shifted the empty dining room from Zaro’s Cafe into a makeshift mini face shield factory for first responders, medical workers, fire departments and EMTs [Emergency Medical Technicians] all over Long Island. We even sent a bunch to a hospital in Chicago.”

Zarou said while he continues to receive an overwhelming amount of requests for the gear, he and his family are working hard to keep up with the requests and plan to do so until the pandemic ends. 

“We are here to support the heroic health care workers as they take care of us,” he said.

The restaurant owner said the family-owned business knows about struggles and is grateful for the support they have received from the community.

“We are all about family and doing what we can to help others whenever possible,” he said. “We have been here almost 27 years and have had our own struggles the last few years. Small businesses have gotten hurt, so we appreciate our loyal regular customers as well as new ones who are still just finding out about us.”

Zaro’s Cafe is open for curbside pickup and delivery Tuesday through Saturday, 1 p.m. to
8 p.m. Those who would like to donate for Zaro’s Cafe to purchase material for more shields can do so via the mobile payment service VENMO by using the handle “ezarou” for the recipient or the digital payment network ZELLE by entering [email protected] as the receiver.

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Centerport Resident Among First to Donate Convalescent Blood Plasma

Dr. Elliott Bennett-Guerrero is leading the clinical trial at Stony Brook Medicine which is expected to enroll up to 500 patients who are hospitalized with COVID-19. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

Stony Brook Medicine has launched a research study in the hopes of developing a treatment for those severely suffering from the coronavirus.

On April 2, SBM began a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved research study to determine if convalescent blood plasma from those who’ve recovered from COVID-19 can help treat currently hospitalized patients. One of the first volunteers was Mark Goidell, a litigation attorney from Centerport.

COVID-19 survivor Mark Goidell donates blood plasma for a research study at SBU. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

The Research Study

Dr. Elliott Bennett-Guerrero, vice chair of Clinical Research and Innovation in the Renaissance School of Medicine Department of Anesthesiology, is heading up the research study. He said the hospital needs approximately 100 volunteers who have recovered from the coronavirus to donate blood plasma, possibly once a week or every other week. Subjects must have contracted COVID-19 and be free of symptoms for 14 days. As of April 22, the doctor said they have received a large number of inquiries leading to 180 people being screened and 90 have been identified as having high levels of antibodies. Currently 25 have either donated blood plasma or are scheduled to do so.

Bennett-Guerrero said researchers are looking for those with high antibody levels of the virus and testing takes about 15 minutes. The donors must also meet regular criteria to be a blood donor, the doctor said, which includes being at least 17 years old, weighing more than 100 pounds, and having no infections Certain travel outside of the U.S. will also be reviewed. 

“We’re very fortunate that we can run this protocol independently, because we have access to a very good test for antibodies, and we also have a licensed blood collection facility already in our hospital,” the doctor said. “So we have those two main ingredients to help us to collect blood plasma and unfortunately have a large number of patients who are in desperate need of help.”

Bennett-Guerrero said the trial will include 500 hospital patients ranging from those who are intubated and those who are not. A higher percentage of patients will receive convalescent serum on a random basis compared to other trials which tend to have 50 percent of patients serve as a control group who receive a placebo.

“Our protocol is unique in that while we want to help as many people as possible, we also want to determine if it’s safe and effective,” the doctor said. “It’s a randomized trial where 80 percent of the patients will receive the convalescent plasma because we hope to benefit as many patients as possible, and there will be a small group of 20 percent of patients that will serve as the control group and get standard plasma. It’s the only way we can rigorously determine if it’s safe and effective to do this.”

Plasma, which is the liquid portion of the blood, helps with clotting and supporting immunity. The hope is the plasma from those who have survived COVID-19 will contain antibodies which in turn can kill the virus in seriously ill patients. According to SBM, convalescent serum therapy is a century-old treatment that has been used in patients during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, the diphtheria epidemic in the U.S. in the 1920s, and more recently, the Ebola outbreak in 2014.

The doctor said it’s too early to determine if giving convalescent blood plasma to a COVID-19 patient will help.

“It’s very early in the stage with this pandemic,” he said. “We’re only beginning to learn what are the patterns of antibody formation in people who had the COVID-19 infection. In general it’s believed that antibodies to COVID-19 will probably persist for a while, perhaps months or years, and likely be protective. However, we don’t know yet if the antibodies that we are measuring actually mean, ‘quote-unquote,’ one is immune and can’t be reinfected. We think that’s probably the case but it’s not proven yet.”

Blood plasma donor Mark Goidell and his wife, Lynn, recently recovered from the coronavirus. Photos from Stony Brook Medicine

The Donor

The doctor said Goidell was a good candidate because he was free of symptoms for a couple of weeks, had high levels of the antibodies in his system and met blood donation criteria.

Both Goidell, 64, and his wife Lynn, 62, came down with the virus. The attorney said he was sick toward the end of February and in early March, and his symptoms included being lethargic and feverish, and at times during the night he would frequently wake up and try to catch his breath, many times going outside to do so.

His wife was admitted to Huntington Hospital March 13 due to having double pneumonia and was discharged a few days later. Goidell said he did have a relapse where he said his symptoms felt like a sinus infection, with a loss of smell and taste. He said he has recovered about 70 percent of those senses.

While his symptoms didn’t initially lead to testing, he said, once his wife was hospitalized he was tested March 17 at an urgent care facility. After reading about the Stony Brook study on the News12 website, Goidell said he was more than willing to participate in the trial.

“It’s heartbreaking to see what’s happening and all the tragedy and anguish that is being brought about by the virus,” Goidell said. “I’m grateful for the fact that I’ve recovered, and I’m able to do something to help.”

He said he feels fortunate to live in close proximity to Stony Brook Medicine. Between his experience with the study so far and his wife’s hospital stay at Huntington Hospital, he has gained an even greater respect and admiration for health care workers. He called those who treated his wife “heroes.”

He added the two of them are now back to working remotely, joking that he has put on some weight due to his wife’s good cooking, and he has been playing a lot of basketball in his driveway to burn off the pounds.

He said he hopes that others who have recovered will donate their plasma, and that others will “stay inside and help each other out.”

“I wish Dr. Bennett-Guerrero and the researchers at Stony Brook the best of luck, and I have the most gratitude for the work they are doing,” he said.

People who have recovered from COVID-19 and want to donate blood plasma can visit www.stonybrookmedicine.edu/COVID_donateplasma where they will be required to fill out an online survey. Potentially eligible people will be asked to participate in a screening visit at a Stony Brook Medicine facility, which will take approximately 30 minutes. You do not need to be a Stony Brook University Hospital patient to participate, but you must meet the required criteria for plasma donation and have high levels of antibodies to the virus that causes COVID-19.

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