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Twins Joshua and Zachary Young at their booth Popinsanity on May 21.
HeartBeet Farms mascot
Shoppers line up for the farmers market
From left, Meena Tommasino-Storz and Anna Morrongiello
Horman's Best Pickles
Maple syrup from BeeWitched Bee
Shoppers line up for the farmers market

By Rita J. Egan

As the warm weather arrives, many people look forward to picking up fresh vegetables, fruit spreads, honey and more at local farmers markets. This year though the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the way many business owners and customers go about selling and buying.

Jennifer Ross, founder of HeartBeet Farms, knew this year she would need to do things differently. Known for selling vegetables out of a food truck at the Stony Brook Village Center and the Smith Haven Mall, Ross decided to organize a new type of outdoor market. 

On May 21, lovers of fresh, local goods found a drive-through farmers market in the southwest corner of the mall parking lot by Bahama Breeze Island Grille. Ross said she thought it would give customers the chance to shop from the convenience of their cars and also provide a safe environment for both them and vendors.

The first night was a big success with scores of cars lining up throughout the evening to purchase items such as vegetables, local honey, pizza-making kits, popcorn, organic coffee and more.

Ross said Ann Schultz, the director of marketing and business development at Smith Haven Mall for the Simon Property Group, told her about a drive-through farmers market that was set up at a Florida Simon mall. She reached out to a few product owners to get their feedback, and she said it was positive so “I said, you know what, let’s give it a try.” 

All vendor fees from the outside market will be donated to local charities, she said, and the nonprofit they donate to will change each month. For the first month, the money will go to Long Island Harvest, which at the end of the May 21 market, in addition to checks, received leftover food from many vendors. Ross said the farmers market will look at all nonprofits that may need help, not only food-related ones.

“That was key to me because nonprofits are struggling in all categories,” she explained.

Ross said as Long Island businesses begin to reopen, HeartBeet Farms will be able to set up a traditional walk-through farmers market at the mall. The parking lot is one that usually only fills up during Christmastime, she added, so there shouldn’t be an issue with parking.

Until then, the drive-through market offers prepaid options for those who may not have the time to wait. Items that need to be chilled are kept in coolers until customers pick them up, she said.

Upon entry last Thursday customers received a flyer detailing what the more than a dozen vendors who were participating had to offer. Ross said in the future the participants will be adding more information to the handouts, and there will also be more vendors setting up booths. Ross said for the first night she wanted to make sure there was enough room for everyone before saying yes to all who were interested. Participants are only asked to commit to a month and not the whole season, she added, as Ross is aware of the difficult economic times many are facing during the pandemic and the possibility of getting ill.

“I don’t want to take their money and then something happens and they can’t be there, and they need their money,” she said.

Ross said she feels the drive though farmers market will help even the mall as the weekly drive-through will bring renewed attention to it. “It will bring business to a mall that is suffering right now,” she said.

Helping out at the farmers market were Ross’ daughters Anna and Abby Morrongiello who founded the nonprofit Don8tions with twin brothers Joshua and Zach Young and friend Meena Tommasino-Storz. The group sells products, such as at the Chocolate & Honey, a holiday concession stand in the Smith Haven Malland, then use their earnings to buy soup for those who attend The Children’s Community Head Start Birth-to-Five Program in Port Jefferson Station. To supplement the soup, the students also provide bread donated by Premier Pastry to the head start families.

Ross and the twins’ mother Michelle Young said the teenagers purchased PopInsanity popcorn wholesale to sell at the farmers market and will donate all profits to their soup drive. While Anna, Abby and Meena worked at other booths for vendors who were unable to work with the public May 21, the Youngs sold the popcorn. Michelle said she even got in a car to drive around to experience everything firsthand, adding that the farmers market came at a good time because since COVID-19 hit, the teens were worried they wouldn’t be able to raise money for the families they have grown to care about. “They’re hard workers,” said Michelle. “I’m always really proud of them because there are a lot of teenagers who would be like I’m not doing that.”

Zachary and Josh, who are completing eighth grade at P.J. Gelinas Junior High School in Setauket, both enjoyed the drive-through farmers market. “It was actually pretty good to get out of the house,” Zachary said. “There were a lot of people helping out, and it was a little bit of returning to normalcy while being safe at the same time.” 

Josh agreed. “I thought it was interesting because I never have done anything like that before, with all the cars,” he said. “It was nice to finally meet new people and somewhat interact.”

For years, HeartBeet Farms operated out of Bethel Hobbs Community Farm in Centereach where Ross leased land, but she said now she is currently growing produce at the Smithtown Historical Society. Starting a garden is something Ross encourages everyone to do, and she said it’s an ideal time to do so not only for health reasons but also to lessen trips to the grocery store.

“In general, you just have to do your best to keep your body healthy, and one of the ingredients in that is vegetables,” she said, adding that local, organic and sustainable foods are better. 

Ross also said gardening has other health benefits. “It’s a great stress reliever. The main reason is putting your hands in the soil and being connected. It’s the greatest thing.”

The drive-through farmers market will be held every Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m., rain or shine, in the Smith Haven Mall southwest parking lot (off Middle Country Road) near Bahama Breeze restaurant through the fall. Pre-ordering is available but not required. For more information, call 516-343-6247 or visit www.heartbeetfarms.com/farmers-market.

Vendors scheduled for May 28

Pecks of Maine — locally made fruit spreads including strawberry rhubarb, dark sweet cherry and many more

Jason’s Healthy, Gluten-Free Meals — dinners to go including chicken franchese with basmati rice and broccoli plus dressings and glazes

Rustic Roots — sustainable vegetables, milk, eggs, cheese, meat, seafood

My Favorite Hummus — 8 oz. classic hummus and Salsa Salta tortilla chips

Sansone Market — pizza kit: sauce, dough ball, shredded mozzarella and pizza cutter

Long Island Microgreens — broccoli, superfood salad mix, speckled pea, leek, mustard microgreens and North Fork Potato Chips

Nina’s Fresh Batch — sweet & salty, chocolate chip and five spice oatmeal cookies; pistachio golden raisin, pecan dried cherry and three nut ginger granola

BeeWitched Bee — local honey, infused honey, elderberry syrup, maple syrup, honey sticks

Pixie Soaps & Suds — cold-processed soaps, body scrubs and more

Popinsanity — classic caramel, sweet & salty, chocolate drizzle, and cookies & cream popcorn

Horman’s Best — classic bread & butter sweet, half sour whole, kosher dill, honey mustard pickles and more

Tend Coffee — organic blends, single origin coffee, Kind Leaf tea and more

Jericho Cider Mill — half gallon apple cider, donute bites and small apple crumb pies 

HeartBeet Farms Farm to Table Soups, Salsa and Sauce  — farm to table potato leek soup, Margherita sauce, tomato tomatillo salsa and Carroll’s Kitchen tortilla chips

New! Le Fusion — homemade spring rolls, vegan and vegetarian

New! The Ferm — fermented farm goods including Kombucha and sauerkraut

New! The Simple Cookie — cookie ingredients in a jar

All photos by Rita J. Egan

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Photo from WMHO

Stony Brook Village restaurants, shops, community residents and others throughout Long Island are continuing in their efforts to support the hometown heroes at Stony Brook University Hospital during this ongoing pandemic.  

Three Village Inn/Lessing’s, Fratelli’s, Crazy Beans and Sweet Mama’s have delivered over 11,000 meals to these dedicated medical professionals, and some of the restaurants are donating extra meals with deliveries. 

Other participating shops in the village include The Crushed Olive, Village Coffee Market, Chocolate Works, Premiere Pastry, Brew Cheese and Penny’s Car Care who have delivered a variety of snacks, cheeses, pastries, cookies, drinks and much more. 

Donations have also been received from private citizens throughout towns in Nassau and Suffolk County as well as out of state.

If you would like to help show your support for healthcare professionals, you can donate to Stony Brook eateries or call the Ward Melville Heritage Organization at 631-751-2244. Your donation is fully tax deductible to the extent allowed by law and every dollar will go to this cause. 

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Buona Sera co-owner Julian Mercado displays the new flyer.

Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic, local pizzerias have teamed up with the Town of Smithtown in a collaborative effort to help find loving homes for rescue dogs and cats at the Smithtown Animal Shelter. Each pizzeria has taped adoption flyers to pizza boxes which are distributed to customers throughout the Township. Each flyer includes important information about the animal seeking a loving home, including age, gender and the needs of each adoptee. 

From left, Monte’s Pizza driver Joseph Soriano and owner Andrew Monteleone with the new flyer.

“The truth is that it’s an ideal time to consider adopting a loving animal in need of a second chance. So we started making calls to local establishments currently operating as essential businesses. The response was overwhelmingly positive, as many of these establishments have stepped up to help the community from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Councilwoman Lisa Inzerillo.

The main objective of the Pizza Box Adoption campaign is to attract new eyes to the longest shelter residents, often passed up because of age, size or breed misconception. Every adoptee featured on these flyers is truly deserving of a second chance.

Participating businesses in the adoption campaign include Buona Sera in Smithtown, Monte’s in Smithtown, Three Bambino’s in Smithtown, Mannino’s in Smithtown, Ciro’s Pizza in Smithtown, Alpine Bakery in Smithtown, Branchinelli’s in Hauppauge, Mama Sbarro’s in Hauppauge, Gino’s in Kings Park, Legend’s in Kings Park, Ciro’s in Kings Park and Pizzaiola in Commack. 

Photos courtesy of Town of Smithtown

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New documentary examines the future of artificial intelligence               and the impact it will have on our world.

Reviewed By Jeffrey Sanzel

We Need to Talk About AI is an intriguing and occasionally alarmist documentary that explores the historical and current developments in Artificial Intelligence. It raises far more questions than it even attempts to answer and that, most likely, is its point.  The title’s urgency is appropriate to this peripatetically engaging ninety minutes.

Director Leanne Pooley has conducted extensive interviews with scientists, engineers, philosophers, filmmaker James Cameron, and a whole range of experts, along with dozens of clips from news broadcasts and nearly one hundred years of science fiction movies. The film plays at a breakneck pace, fervently bouncing from one opinion to an alternate point-of-view.

Currently streaming On Demand, the documentary is appropriately hosted by Keir Dullea, who gives a dry menace to the narration and occasionally appears walking through crowded streets like a being from an alternate universe. Dullea is best known as astronaut Dave Bowman in Stanley Kubrick’s landmark 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).  Pooley uses the film’s HAL (Heuristically Programmed ALgorithmic Computer) as the example of man’s greatest fear in the world of AI: a computer that becomes sentient and will no longer obey its human creators.

The early days of AI work seems almost quaint in comparison to latter-day capabilities.  Much of this can be traced to the advancement in the computer technology and the rise of the internet. The internet’s considerable expansion in the last two decades has been the greatest gamechanger. 

A constant refrain is that the dialogue surrounding AI has been “hijacked” by Hollywood: the majority of the populace associate AI in negative terms. It is about the rebellion of manmade machines (e.g., The Terminator). The scientists are in agreement that this is a misrepresentation. That is, they are for the most part. As the film progresses, the views on the dangers of AI diverge.

It all comes down to the question of conscience and autonomy. There is a dissection of the issues behind self-driving cars and how to embed ethics into the machine. The Trolley Problem — how do you decide who to save —  is used to demonstrate the challenge. To make the decision, the machine would have to be a conscious being. 

Furthermore, can a machine be conscious or have a conscience? The idea of conscious and conscience becomes central.  As it is almost impossible to define what “conscious” is, it creates additional conflicts in the narrative. This leads to conversations on emotion and whether machines will ever be able to feel and react to social cues.  

The film poses many hypotheses and explores the predicament from all sides. There is rarely uniform agreement. Can a machine make itself smarter by programming itself? Will the evolution be gradual or exponential?

Even now, robot surgery, agriculture, and even Facebook’s suicide awareness algorithms are examples given of the recent uses of AI. Computers can now beat the world’s greatest chess players. Not that many years ago, these were considered impossible outside of speculative fiction.

Throughout, Pooley returns to the teaching of Baby X, an intelligent toddler simulation that is both fascinating and chilling. Baby X almost seems human and appears to be learning. It is a strange and exciting phenomenon.

Already, the argument is made that we carry less in our brains because we carry parts of them in our pockets in the form of cell phones. In essence, they are the merging of minds with computers. They are an augmentation and a symbiotic integration. 

Ultimately, it comes down to not so much how we build AI but what we do with it. The unifying position of the interviewed is the fear that this power will be used for evil — or at least negative purposes. (Pooley unsubtly does a quick montage of the world’s foremost demagogues.) 

The consensus is that it should not be about who arrives first but who gets there safely. They hope but doubt for regulation. If it is corporations or business (Google, Microsoft, etc.) that get primary control, it will be driven by greed. If it is the military, it will be about killing. They say we only have one chance to get it right, and the leader in the field must, in essence, be the good parent. AI will dominate the economy and, therefore, the world. 

There are myriad questions raised: What it means to be human? If machines become more, will we be become less? Is AI going to do something for you or to you? Is science fiction the canary in the coal mine? That is, do we face the apocalypse if AI doesn’t play out the positive scenarios?

And then there are the moral questions. Can machines be made accountable? Does a machine have rights? If so, is this a form of slavery, where conscious beings are created and then dehumanized? There is a brief section about the rise of sex robots that is twinned with a clip from the 1927 silent film Metropolis. Can a machine say, “No?”

Perhaps we have come a long way from the science fiction movies of our past. Maybe we will never face the voice of HAL saying, “I’m sorry, Dave. I can’t do that.”

Or perhaps we will.  

The final line sums up the entire journey:  “What do we want the role of humans to be?” We Need to Talk About AI is a great place to start.

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From left, Supervisor Ed Wehrheim with James Cotgreave, his wife Jackie and children Chase and Sophia. Photo from Town of Smithtown

James Cotgreave, a lifelong resident of the Town of Smithtown and founder of Cotgreave Insurance Agency, was presented a proclamation from the Town of Smithtown by Supervisor Ed Wehrheim for donating over $10,000 worth of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to local law enforcement and healthcare professionals over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic on May 14. 

On May 15, Cotgreave joined with the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) on the same day at Saint Catherine of Siena Medical Center where they distributed his latest donation of 2500 disposable gowns.

“A few weeks ago, I reached out to Jim to ask if he could help me fundraise for another round of PPE gear for our front line heroes,” said Supervisor Wehrheim. “Jim took it upon himself to completely fund and distribute the disposable gowns. He has been at the forefront of assisting first responders and healthcare workers since early March … never asking for thanks or recognition and always looking for more good to do.” 

Over the course of the last two months, Cotgreave has donated approximately $10,000 worth of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to shield those on the front lines with the safest equipment to treat patients, protect the community, and themselves. 

In addition to his recent donation of disposable gowns, Cotgreave has donated and distributed 5000 face masks to the Police Benevolent Association, Suffolk County Deputy Sheriffs and to the healthcare workers at St Catherine’s of Siena Medical Center. Cotgreave has also assisted local food establishments by purchasing $1,000 worth of meals to feed hospital staff within the township.

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'Star Wars Rise of Skywalker'

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to keep indoor movie theaters closed for now, drive-in cinemas have staged a comeback on Long Island, most recently in Lake Grove. Event producer Starfish Junction has entered into a partnership with Simon Malls to safely entertain families this summer with the launch of MOVIE LOT — a pop-up drive-in series offering movies shown on a giant 52-foot screen erected in the parking lot of the Smith Haven Mall. 

‘Sonic the Hedgehog’

Visitors may enter the mall area via Middle Country Rd. Follow signs to the Verizon lot. Security and staff will direct you where to park. The lot will open 45 minutes prior to show time. Radio frequencies are used to play sound in your vehicle. Upon arrival, you’ll see the radio station channel up on the big screen. 

Ticketholders are permitted to bring their own food and snacks to enjoy during the show. Attendees may also consider Smith Haven Mall restaurants for curbside pick up before filing into the lot for the movie. Portable restrooms will be available for use. 

“Drive-in movies naturally adhere to the social distancing guidelines and gives people something fun to do. We’ve all been sheltering in place for weeks, our goal is to deliver a safe and entertaining way to lift the spirits of our neighbors while at the same time adhere to social distancing guidelines,” said Lauren Powers, Senior Director at Starfish Junction.  “I think we are all ready to go out, do it safely, and have some fun.” 

‘King Kong’

“We’ve got a great lineup for the summer and we anticipate a great response from the local community. But make no mistake about it, we will be strictly enforcing social distancing rules and regulations at each and every showing,” said Powers.

Kicking off the series on Thursday, May 28 at 8:45 p.m. will be the 1981 mega-hit Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark (PG). Other movies included in the summer series weekend kick off include the newly-released Sonic the Hedgehog (PG) on Friday, May 29 at 8:45 p.m. followed by the 2005 version of King Kong at 11:45 p.m. (PG-13); the 1976 The Bad News Bears (PG) on Saturday, May 30 at 8:45 p.m. followed by the 2020 blockbuster Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker at 11:45 p.m.

The rest of the summer lineup will be announced soon and will include movies perfect for date nights, family fun nights, girl’s night out, sing-alongs, and midnight showings of fright-night classics. There are a limited number of tickets available for each showing. Tickets are on sale now ($40 per carload) and must be purchased online in advance at www.MovieLotDriveIn.com.

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VFW 3054 members and veterans Tim Still and Jack Cassidy place a wreath at the memorial monument on Route 25A in Setauket on May 25.
Arleen Gargiulo sings the National Anthem
Representing Cub Scout Pack 18, Kellen McDermott, along with his mother Meaghan, place a wreath at the memorial monument on Route 25A in Setauket on May 25.
Representing Cub Scout Pack 18, Kellen McDermott, along with his mother Meaghan, place a wreath at the memorial monument on Route 25A in Setauket on May 25.
Representing the Three Village Historical Society, Beverly C. Tyler (as Abraham Woodhull) places a wreath at the memorial monument
Tim Still, Jack Cassidy and Jay Veronko
VFW 3054 members and veterans Tim Still and Jack Cassidy place a wreath at the memorial monument
VFW 3054 members and veterans Tim Still and Jack Cassidy place a wreath at the memorial monument
A rifle salute
The flags are raised
The monument at Setauket Veterans Memorial Park
Somber day marked with wreath-laying event

By Heidi Sutton

In Setauket, Memorial Day is usually marked with a parade from Main Street to Route 25A followed by a remembrance ceremony, but these are not usual times.

For the first time in recent years the parade was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3054, which hosts the Three Village Memorial Day Parade each year, decided to hold a brief wreath-laying ceremony at Setauket Veterans Memorial Park to memorialize those who have given the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country.

The park’s monument honors members of the community who perished in World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

 “As long as two comrades survive — so long will the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States render tribute to our heroic dead,” said Post Commander Jay Veronko, who led the 10-minute remembrance event.

“On this day, forever consecrated to our heroic dead, we are assembled once again to express sincere reverence. This monument represents the resting places of many departed comrades who served in all wars. Wherever the body of a comrade lies there the ground is hallowed,” Veronko recited. 

As in years past there was the traditional rifle salute, a prayer, the playing of taps and rousing renditions of our country’s national anthem and “God Bless America” by Arleen Gargiulo of Setauket, albeit with face masks while adhering to strict social distancing measures.

Kellen McDermott of Cub Scout Pack 18, Beverly C. Tyler representing the Three Village Historical Society, and Tim Still and Jack Cassidy from VFW Post 3054 presented wreaths.

“Our presence here is in solemn commemoration of all these men — an expression of our tribute to their devotion to duty, to their courage and patriotism. By their services on land, on sea and in the air, they have made us their debtors, for the flag of our nation still flies over a land of free people,” Veronko said.

The Post also paid their respects to their departed comrades Edward Arndt and Walter Denzler Sr. and “a solemn tribute to all comrades wherever they may rest.” The group also laid wreaths at the Setauket Village Green Memorial and the Stony Brook Village Memorial. 

Veronko thanked the participants for coming. “Hopefully next year we can have a parade,” he said.

Photos by Heidi Sutton

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Cira

MEET CIRA AND SAMPSON!

Cira
Sampson

This week’s shelter pets are Cira, left, and Sampson, right, from the Smithtown Animal Shelter.

Cira is a one-year-old female domestic shorthair mix who was brought in to the shelter as a stray. An injury from her life as a stray caused her to lose some of her tail, but this only adds to her charm. This love bug has a very gentle and loving demeanor, with an unlimited supply of cuddles and affection. Her perfect home would be with children where she can get (and give!) all kinds of love and friendship. 

Sampson is a 2-year-old male domestic shorthair who was found living as a stray and was brought into the shelter by a good samaritan. He was underweight at first, but the team at the shelter have helped him to add a few pounds and get him healthy again Sampson not only has a huge appetite for food, but he also craves love! He is a very outgoing and sweet little guy who just wants to give and get love anywhere he can find it. He may be small in stature, but he has a big heart and an even mightier spirit inside. Sampson gets along well with other cats and is good for a family with children.

If you are interested in meeting either Cira or Sampson please fill out an adoption application online at www.townofsmithtownanimalshelter.com.

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Jennifer Keluskar. Photo from SBU

By Daniel Dunaief

In the second of a two-part series, Times Beacon Record News Media describes the clinical and research work of Jennifer Keluskar, a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Stony Brook University.

Keluskar and Matthew Lerner, an Associate Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry & Pediatrics (see last week’s paper), recently received a grant from the Office of the Vice President for Research & the Institute for Engineering-Driven Medicine to study the effects of COVID-19-induced social isolation on people with Autism Spectrum Disorder. 

Keluskar spends half her time working at the Outpatient Department of Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Services, where she provides cognitive behavioral intervention and ASD diagnostic evaluations for youth with autism, and the other half working on the SB Autism Initiative.

The pandemic has challenged young people with autism, as they manage through social isolation and worry about an uncertain future. Many of Jennifer Keluskar’s patients are struggling, with some dreading the return to school in the fall and others grappling with the removal or change in a routine or structure.

Some of her clients have felt increased pressure to organize their time and be productive amid a lack of peer support and without the opportunities to model their performance based on interacting with other students at school.

Through modeling, some students take notes when they notice their classmates writing down concepts or ideas a teacher is sharing or gaining some measure of reassurance when they see that everyone is struggling with the work load.

“This latter point is particularly relevant given the novelty of this situation for teachers as well as the consequent likelihood that they will have trouble knowing how much work to give, especially given the wide variety” of circumstances at home, Keluskar explained in an email.

For some students with autism who have a measure of social-anxiety disorder, the remote learning environment has provided some measure of relief, reducing the difficulty in reading nonverbal cues from their classmates and teachers.

Now that these students are learning remotely, these “social stressors have been lifted,” Keluskar said.

Nonetheless, even the patients who have felt relieved about fewer anxiety-inducing social interactions are starting to develop concerns about a potential resumption of classes in the fall.

Keluskar has already seen some patients who are perseverating on that future upcoming transition. “We are going to see more of it in my clientele as we get closer to reopening schools,” she said, adding that she has some patients who are afraid of not being able to advance in life, to college or to jobs, but who, at the same time, are afraid of taking the next step after getting used to quarantine.

Jennifer Keluskar with her husband Raja, 5-year-old daughter Skylar and three-year-old son Colby.

Working with Alan Gerber, a graduate student in Matthew Lerner’s lab at SBU, Keluskar will assess responses to COVID-19. They have sent out two questionnaires. One, which was released by other researchers, examines how the pandemic has affected circumstances and behaviors, from employment changes to junk food consumption. The other is an evidence-based measure of parental stress that is not specific to the virus. She is going to measure anxiety and depression to see how they change during quarantine. 

Keluskar appreciates how the Initiative offers programs such as a homework club, which students can attend virtually for an hour each day. “I have connected some of my clients in the clinic to undergraduate mentors and so far this has been quite successful” although the scale of these connections has been small so far.

The Initiative currently has a mentoring program geared towards older adolescents. She is planning to offer this program to younger individuals.

Deborah Gross, the Initiative’s coordinator, runs a program called the Sidekicks Squad, which is for older adolescents and young adults with special needs.

“Some of my patients would benefit from pairing with a mentor,” Keluskar said. “Through these mentoring sessions, people with autism hang out with their mentors.”

Child-directed interpersonal time is “so important for people’s well being and development,” Keluskar explained, referring to both the mentor and the mentee.

She appreciates that this mentoring program is laid back and fun and believes that mentors benefit just as much from it as mentees.

Through the Initiative, the group has also done eight weekly, Facebook livestream events. The organizers discuss a topic and add three tips at the end. The tips have provided suggestions, including: using creativity to engage children by adding special interests into activities; taking a collaborative problem solving approach when running into difficulties getting a child to cooperate; and understanding emotional underpinnings to children’s behavioral difficulties.

Keluskar recognizes the challenge that come from having self-directed resources available to children and their parents. Even when people have access to many resources, they do not always know where to begin or what to prioritize, she said.

She advises a parents to try to get enough rest for themselves. “You need to take care of yourself so you can model [appropriate behavior] to your children,” she said.

Through the pandemic challenges, Keluskar also urges parents to be creative in their responses to the stressors that are affecting them and their children. She suggests people to take chances in how they approach their interactions with anxious children.

“You can’t be creative if you’re afraid of being wrong,” she said. “Being able to move past little mistakes shows flexible control. Set limits and be structured, but also be flexible at the same time.”

A resident of Commack, Keluskar lives with her husband Raja Keluskar, who is an engineer, their five-year old daughter Skylar and their three-year old son Colby.

Keluskar said she has been anxious about public speaking since she was young and can empathize with others who struggle with this. Through Facebook groups and other efforts, she said she can “personally attest to the value of multiple exposures and say that it can even become enjoyable with time and practice.”

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