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Jordan Ceccarini was recognized by the Miller Place board of education at a meeting last week for her remarkable accomplishments as a level 10 gymnast. From left: Nick Ceccarini, Nicholas Ceccarini, Jordan Ceccarini, Dawn Ceccarini and Athletic Director Ron Petrie. Front: Angelo Ceccarini. Photo by Alex Petroski

Gymnastics is grueling enough, even with the help and support of teammates and coaches. Sixteen-year-old Miller Place junior Jordan Ceccarini competes at the highest level for her age group with all of the pressure and physical toll that comes with gymnastics, minus that help and support. For her efforts, Ceccarini was honored by the district’s board of education at a meeting last week.

Miller Place doesn’t have a varsity gymnastics team. But beginning in eighth grade, Ceccarini represented Miller Place in competitions with the help of her outside club coach, Peter Neu.

“We wanted her to be a part of the school and participate in a sport, and this was the only way we could make that happen,” Jordan’s mom Dawn Ceccarini said. She and her husband Nick were extremely grateful for Superintendent Marianne Higuera’s and the board of education’s kind words about their daughter.

Ceccarini is a superstar in the local gymnastics world. She is classified as a level 10, the highest level of competition available for amateur gymnasts. The next step up is Olympic level. In 2013, as a level 9, she won the national championship for her age group in floor exercise. As a level 10, she placed ninth in the country on the balance beam, to go along with countless other state and regional accomplishments. In May, Ceccarini will travel to Texas to compete in nationals, representing the Northeastern region.

“I’m excited,” Ceccarini said. “I think winning is a little bit of a far reach, but I hope to place and do well.”

Her unassuming, humble outlook for a national tournament, which automatically implies a spot in the top 50 gymnasts in the country for her age group, was also noted by Miller Place athletic director Ron Petrie during the board of education meeting, along with her rare talent.

“That is just something that is not only unbelievable and impressive, we haven’t had something like this come to Miller Place since I’ve been here,” Petrie said. He’s served as the district’s athletic director since 2015, though he has taught and coached football at Miller Place since 2000.

Ceccarini, or “Momo,” as her mom said she’s also known, started doing gymnastics when she was 2 years old, at “mommy and me” classes, though it was around seventh grade that her mom said she might be special. Her five days per week, four hours per day practice schedule has netted Ceccarini a scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh after she graduates from Miller Place in 2017. It has also cost her some normal 16-year-old social activities, like attending prom this year, though Ceccarini seems to take everything in stride, with the help of a competitive fire that both her mom and athletic director recognize.

Though she competed without the benefit of a coach or a team, Ceccarini’s time at Miller Place will not be forgotten after she leaves.

“I have no doubt that one day Jordan will be inducted into the Miller Place Athletic Hall of Fame as a result of her athletic achievements,” Higuera said.

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By Marissa Paganelli

Cancer survivor and Northport native Alexis Attardi is returning to hospitals — but this time, it isn’t for treatment. Instead, the 19-year-old is helping patients who are fighting the battle against cancer she once fought.

Attardi, a sophomore at Adelphi University, works with Love Your Melon, a nonprofit started by college students in 2012 that raises money for cancer research by selling hats. For each hat sold, one is also given to a child cancer patient.

Love Your Melon has made a name for itself through college representatives like Attardi, who take their time to spread the word and deliver hats to local children’s hospitals.

“Giving a hat to a child with cancer is meant to bring continuous smiles and support to someone fighting,” Attardi said. “Losing hair is a part of the fight where the request of a hat from a loved one is supposed to make the process easier and something these children can look forward to wearing.”

Attardi was 11 when she was diagnosed with stage four of anaplastic non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a strain of cancer that develops in the lymphatic system from cells called lymphocytes, a kind of white blood cell that helps the body fight infections.

The only response Attardi said she could muster when the doctor told her was “Am I going to die?”

She said she was told that she was going to be in for the fight of her life, and was given a 70 percent chance of survival.

Attardi was just starting middle school at the time, and was scared no one would want to be her friend because of the way she looked. She had lost 30 pounds and most of her hair as a result of her 15 chemotherapy treatments.

Attardi received her treatments at Stony Brook University Children’s Hospital where staff members and nurses soon became her closest friends. Whether it was coming into her room to spend time with her or just to check in and see how she was doing, she said the staff made the hospital feel like home.

“It was the little signs of thought and care that made being in a hospital and not in school with my friends a bit easier,” Attardi said. She missed her last three months of sixth grade due to treatment.

After her yearlong battle, Attardi was told she was cancer free.

“It was a miracle to hear those words, and a feeling I can’t put words to,” she said.

Attardi said she understood that her cancer could come back at any moment, and it’s because of this she works so hard to give back to children and people who face the same obstacle she once did.

“As a cancer survivor and captain of Adelphi’s Love Your Melon campus crew, giving back is what I’m all about,” she said.

Attardi said she plans on returning to Stony Brook  University Hospital.

“I just want to contribute the same help I was given and I know even the littlest things, like receiving a beanie, means so much more than it would be thought.”

Attardi’s commitment to her cause has impressed her peers.

“I have no doubt Alexis can make a huge impact in children’s lives,” said Erica Massmann, a member of Adelphi’s Love Your Melon crew who has worked alongside Attardi in recruiting new members on campus. “Being a cancer survivor herself, Alexis knows what these children are going through. She can take her experiences with her fight with cancer and bring that into the community to help make a difference.”

Attardi said she has come out of this experience a stronger person.

“I’ve realized life isn’t about materialistic things,” she said. “Helping others is a task that has continued to shape me as a person.”

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Coldwell Banker offices across Long Island, like the office in Setauket, are helping veterans residing at the United Veterans Beacon House. Photo by Giselle Barkley

The Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage typically help residents find a place to call home. But now, the company is on a mission to help veterans in need, with its Hometown Heroes Linen Drive.

Associate Broker Lorraine Marotta of the Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Setauket said the company started the drive earlier this year in January. Coldwell Banker offices across Long Island are participating in this initiative. Their goal is to collect 3,700 sets of linens including twin sheet sets and standard pillowcases, new pillows, new bath towels and new comforters. They hope to collect 700 of each by July 4 of this year.

The linens will go toward the veterans living in homes provided by the United Veterans Beacon House in Bay Shore. Many of these veterans can’t live on their own, Marotta said. Hall-Lane Moving and Storage, which provided each office with large collection boxes, is responsible for picking up and delivering the supplies to Beacon House the associate broker added.

The Beacon House mission is to provide temporary and permanent housing for homeless veterans as well as “emergency, transitional and permanent residence for families” and single individuals. The organization strives for privacy when it comes to its veterans. Some of these veterans are housed discreetly throughout Long Island communities.

Of the organization’s more than 20 housing locations, around nine  homes are designated for veterans. One of these homes is dedicated to female veterans while another is for the frail and elderly, according to the organization’s site.

This isn’t the first time Coldwell Banker has worked with Beacon House and assisted veterans utilizing Beacon House services. In the past they’ve scheduled appointments to visit and provide new flags and a Thanksgiving meal among other items, to these veterans.

On April 14 the organization met with the Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage of Long Island and Queens in Huntington to collect the first donations for the drive.

For Marotta caring for veterans hits close to home as her husband is a veteran as well. But her passion for the drive also stems from the fact that it’s a great cause.

“It’s nice to be able to recognize veterans,” Marotta said. “I feel like they’ve just been forgotten. Not only are they lonely they’re so appreciative.”

The community can drop off new linens at their local Coldwell Banker. For more information about the Hometown Heroes Linen Drive call 516-864-8104.

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Volunteers from National Grid worked to improve the community garden in Huntington Station on Wednesday, April 20. Photo from Wendy Ladd

Everything’s coming up roses in Huntington Station, thanks to volunteers who spent last Wednesday afternoon working on improvements to the Gateway Park Community Organic Garden.

In honor of Earth Day, more than 70 volunteers from energy company National Grid’s Power to Serve program worked to develop a drainage system, clean up debris and plant flowers.

Supervisor Frank Petrone (D) thanked the volunteers for their efforts, including a new rain garden “that will make the garden more environmentally efficient and enjoyable for the many gardeners and children who attend the educational programs there.”

Many other local legislators were present at the scene, including Councilman Mark Cuthbertson (D), State Assemblyman Chad Lupinacci (R-Huntington Station) and Suffolk County Legislator William “Doc” Spencer (D-Centerport). Lupinacci also gave National Grid’s President Ken Daly a proclamation for the volunteer work.

The community garden on New York Avenue, at Lowndes Avenue, covers more than an acre and has 115 garden beds for families to grow their own fresh fruits and vegetables. Food grown there is also donated to local food pantries.

According to National Grid, flooding had been an issue in the garden, so the company worked with the town to develop a drainage plan to capture the runoff and prevent flooding in the raised planting beds. Volunteers hand-dug a 4,000-foot trench to install an underground drainage system and put down rocks to capture runoff and direct that water into the newly planted rain garden.

Rain gardens provide environmental benefits, as they capture and clean rainwater before it enters the groundwater system.

Volunteers also planted colorful moisture-tolerant plants, removed litter and weeded the garden.

The effort came “at a perfect time for Huntington Station, with two redevelopment projects underway and renewed community support for revitalization,” Eric Alexander, director of Vision Long Island, a nonprofit geared toward smart growth, said in a statement. “Tangible improvements including a new rain garden were made from the National Grid volunteers and gave a lift to the garden and the Huntington Station community.”

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Judy Blundell writes under the pen name Jude Watson. Photo from Blundell

She may often write about a galaxy far, far away, but Judy Blundell does so from a home in Stony Brook residents’ own backyard. Blundell, also known as Jude Watson, is a best-selling author of fiction for children and young adults.

She has written somewhere around 70 books since she began writing in the mid-1990s, though she said in a phone interview last week she lost count. More than 40 of those are “Star Wars” novels written in the time that falls before, after and between the stories depicted in the seven films released to date.

Blundell, as she’s known when writing historical fiction stories for young adults, lives close enough to Stony Brook Harbor to hear seagulls and ferries while she sits in her office. She also spent time living in California, New York City, Florida, Washington and Delaware, among others.

“Coming back to Long Island is a place I know really well, and it has really been a joy to wind up in this beautiful place, Stony Brook—it has been wonderful,” Blundell said. She was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Queens.

Her mystery and adventure stories for children, usually in the ages 8 to 12 range, get the byline Jude Watson. The scenery in her hometown coupled with her own curiosity are her major sources of inspiration, she said.

“I think the world around me is a varied and fascinating place,” Blundell said. “I’m always interested in people, overheard conversations, things I witness on the subway if I’m in New York or in Target or wherever. Writers are always looking for characters. And very often, books, for me, start with a character rather than a situation and then you sort of write your way into figuring out what the story is.”

Blundell conceded she has had plenty of days with no inspiration, but her remedy is to power through. She offered that as advice to aspiring young writers: Even if you think what you’re producing is terrible, you have to keep writing. “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working,” Pablo Picasso once said, and Blundell said she shares that philosophy.

Blundell has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list several times in her career. In 2008, she received a National Book Award for young people’s literature for the first story she ever put her real name on: “What I Saw and How I Lied.”

Blundell’s husband of more than 30 years, Neil Watson, executive director of the Long Island Museum, said he’s her biggest fan.

“I have the highest respect for her and as a writer, I think it’s tremendous that she has gotten the critical and popular acclaim that she deserves,” Watson said of his wife in an interview. “She is a wonderful writer. She’s a very generous person with her craft and with her ideas.”

Together the couple has cultivated a love of the arts in their 15-year-old daughter Cleo, who is a talented artist in her own right. She is a member of the National Junior Art Society.

“It’s just a part of our house,” Watson said of art in their Stony Brook home. “It’s the home of a museum curator and a writer. Music is constantly on—all types.”

Blundell spoke fondly of her foray into the world of Star Wars, but also mentioned she had fun writing her last novel, “Sting,” which was a follow up to a story she wrote called “Loot,” about a successful jewel thief and his son.

“It was difficult to write because it was a ‘heist’ book, so the plots are very tight and obviously I’m not a jewel thief, so there’s a lot to figure out,” Blundell said, laughing. “But they’re meant to be fun to read and they can’t be fun to read if they’re not fun to write on some level, as hard as they are.”

Blundell said one of her goals is to write stories for kids who view reading as more of a chore than a pleasure.

“I consciously wrote [Loot and Heist] for kids that don’t normally like to read, what we call reluctant readers,” she said. “So the chapters are very short, there’s a lot of action, there’s a lot of fun; there’s a lot of jokes for that reason.”

Blundell said she is currently working on a novel that will be geared more towards adults, though that’s the most she wanted to divulge about it at the moment. To learn more about Blundell and her work, visit her website: www.judyblundell.com.

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From left, Judith Greiman, vice president for government and community relations at Stony Brook University, with Brookhaven Highway Superintendent Dan Losquadro, Stony Brook University President Samuel L. Stanley, State Sen. John Flanagan and Assemblyman Steve Englebright. Photo from Dan Losquadro

The state and town have teamed up and come up big for traffic safety in Stony Brook.

More than $1 million will make its way to the North Shore with help from its elected officials to fund a traffic safety improvement project on Stony Brook Road, officials announced this week. The money, which came largely through state Sen. John Flanagan (R-East Northport) and state Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket), will examine a contentious stretch from Oxhead Road to Development Drive in Stony Brook, to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety as well as accessibility to public transportation.

The community surrounding Stony Brook University has been a longtime talking point for North Shore natives as an area in desperate need of improvement.

“I am proud to have worked with Stony Brook University and the Town of Brookhaven to advance this important project that will improve safety for students and residents alike,” said Flanagan, who secured $1 million for the project. “Creating more walkable communities is a move toward the future and I am happy to have contributed to such a worthwhile project.”

Once completed, the undertaking should herald the construction of a continuous sidewalk along Stony Brook Road; the extension of existing bicycle lanes and the installation of new left turn lanes at the existing signalized intersections; installation of a new traffic signal at Development Drive; and pedestrian signal upgrades, ornamental pedestrian-scale lighting, landscaping and ADA-compliant handicap ramps.

Flanagan’s $1 million, coupled with an additional $75,000 in grant funding that Englebright helped acquire, will hopefully reduce the presence of motorized forms of transportation and create a more united community surrounding the university.

“I applaud the ongoing efforts of Superintendent Losquadro and President Stanley to improve safety on Stony Brook Road and am heartened to see this project coming closer to fruition,” Englebright said. “The state funding secured by Senator Flanagan and myself will make a safer road for walkers and bicyclists by providing sidewalks, bicycle lanes, street lighting and a new traffic signal with pedestrian upgrades.”

Samuel L. Stanley, president of Stony Brook University, said pedestrian safety has been a longtime priority for the 25,000-student campus.

Brookhaven Highway Superintendent Dan Losquadro (R) said the project was a pivotal step in the transformation of the community surrounding Stony Brook University.

“The addition of sidewalks and bicycle lanes will provide an alternative, safe means of transportation for students and residents traveling to and from Stony Brook University,” he said. “As a graduate of Stony Brook University, I take a lot of personal pride in moving this project forward.” 

The estimated total cost of this project is $1.6 million, officials said. In addition to the $1 million in state funding — which comes from the New York State Dormitory Authority, through its State and Municipal Facilities Capital Program — and the $75,000 secured through the state multi-modal program, the Town of Brookhaven Highway Department is covering the remaining costs.

Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine (R) has been working with the town board to usher in a greater corridor study of Route 25A, which passes through Stony Brook, and said the traffic study project would also help propel the town toward a safer space for foot traffic.

“Safer roads are a great way to promote pedestrian traffic around Stony Brook University,” Romaine said. “This is a perfect example to prove how different levels of government can work together to get things done. I thank Senator Flanagan and Assemblyman Englebright for securing the funding and their commitment to improving the quality of life in Brookhaven town.”

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Councilwoman Jane Bonner, left, stands next to honoree Mark Baisch and alongside VFW members and honoree Natalie Stiefel, center, at the Rocky Point Lion’s Club’s Taste of Long Island event. Photo by Giselle Barkley

Around 250 people dressed to impress for the Rocky Point Lion’s Clubs’ ninth Taste of Long Island event, including two residents whose work has made a difference in the community.

The club honored Mark Baisch, president of Landmark Properties, and Natalie Aurucci Stiefel, president of the Rocky Point Historical Society on Wednesday, April 20, at the East Wind Inn and Spa in Shoreham. Baisch, a developer whose work has helped preserve historic sites and provided affordable homes for veterans, their families and other members of the community, said he felt honored by the recognition but added he couldn’t have come this far on his own.

“They’re honoring me, but I hope tonight, that I honor the rest of the people who were involved in helping me do what we’ve done,” Baisch said.

The club notified the duo a few months ago. Stiefel wasn’t only honored but proud to be part of the club’s Taste of Long Island event, adding that she thinks it’s a feat that doesn’t come easily.

“I’ve done some work with different organizations and it’s wonderful to be pointed out and shown at some special event like tonight,” Stiefel said. “I appreciate it so much.”

Councilwoman Jane Bonner talks about the honorees during the event. Photo by Giselle Barkley
Councilwoman Jane Bonner talks about the honorees during the event. Photo by Giselle Barkley

Baisch and Stiefel teamed up a few years ago to save Rocky Point’s Noah Hallock house, the oldest house in the hamlet. Noah Hallock built the approximate 295-year-old house that provided shelter for eight generations of his family. The land was sold to the Via Cava family in 1964, and that family sold the property to the historical society in 2013. Basich issued an extended no-interest mortgage on the property to help further preserve the home for future generations.

They also helped veteran Deborah Bonacasa and her 5-year-old daughter Lilianna find a place to call home. Last December, Bonacasa’s husband Louis was killed in a suicide bomb attack during his fourth deployment to Afghanistan.

In honor of their achievements, Town of Brookhaven Councilwoman Jane Bonner (C-Rocky Point) named April 20 after Baisch and Stiefel in the Town of Brookhaven. The councilwoman commended both residents for their efforts. According to Bonner, without Stiefel’s tenacity when it came to preserving the Noah Hallock home, Baisch wouldn’t have been able to help.

While the councilwoman has known Baisch for eight years, she and VFW Post 6249 Commander Joe Cognitore have known Stiefel for a long time.

Cognitore, who was a former Lion’s Club honoree, met Stiefel in the early 1990s. He said Stiefel is a tireless worker and a part of the VFW family.

According to event organizer Bill Johnson, this year’s dinner was the club’s largest to date. Tickets were $60 in advance and $75 at the door. Proceeds went toward the Rocky Point Historical Society, the Marty Lyons Foundation and the Rocky Point Lions Club.

Johnson said the club goes to former honorees and asks for their input regarding upcoming honorees.

“Very honestly, I did not know Mark Baisch or Natalie Stiefel before they were recommended,” Johnson said. “In retrospect, they’re absolutely the right people to be honoring tonight.”

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A young Huntington resident gets acquainted with some of the smaller dogs up for adoption from the Huntington Animal Shelter at Huntington Honda this past Saturday. Photo by Alex Petroski

Huntington Town is trying a new approach to care for homeless and abused dogs. Supervisor Frank Petrone (D) announced last week the launch of Give a Dog a Dream, a not-for-profit foundation the town formed to raise money for dogs in Huntington’s municipal animal shelter.

“For some time, people have asked how they can help improve the lives of dogs entrusted to our animal shelter’s care,” Petrone said in a statement. The foundation is a new “vehicle through which residents can help provide the extras and specialized care beyond the basics [that] public funding provides.”

Residents are encouraged to donate money, food, beds or other supplies.

A young Huntington resident gets acquainted with some of the smaller dogs up for adoption from the Huntington Animal Shelter at Huntington Honda this past Saturday. Photo by Alex Petroski
A young Huntington resident gets acquainted with some of the smaller dogs up for adoption from the Huntington Animal Shelter at Huntington Honda this past Saturday. Photo by Alex Petroski

Gerald Mosca, the head of the Huntington Animal Shelter, said the town has worked to change the image of the dog refuge.

“What we wanted to do when I took over in 2010 was change the perception of municipal shelters,” that they’re a place where dogs go to die, Mosca said. “That was not what we wanted to portray, and it’s obviously not what we wanted to do.”

The shelter housed nearly 80 dogs when he took over, he said, and now, many adoptions later, they’re down to seven. He credited his dedicated volunteer staff for training the dogs and preparing them to be adopted.

Michael Costa, the assistant executive director of Give a Dog a Dream, stressed the importance of helping the municipal shelter not only be a “no-kill” shelter, but also to give the dogs living there a good quality of life.

“You end up with a dog that sits in a kennel for four, five years,” Costa said. “In most shelters they’re only getting out for maybe 15 to 20 minutes a day if they’re lucky. They’re confined to three-foot by five-foot kennels most of that time. It’s not adequate care. It’s not adequate compassion. These dogs physically may be fine, though mentally they tend to suffer. By working within the community and pushing the way we’ve pushed to get these dogs where they need to be — in homes — we help to make sure they get the care that they really need.”

A dog up for adoption from the Huntington Animal Shelter at Huntington Honda Saturday. Photo by Alex Petroski
A dog up for adoption from the Huntington Animal Shelter at Huntington Honda Saturday. Photo by Alex Petroski

To kick off the foundation, Huntington Honda hosted a special adoption event on Saturday. Members of the community passed through from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. to meet the seven dogs currently being cared for at the town shelter.

“These dogs are all well prepared to go into every house,” Mosca said. “Most of these dogs are very well behaved.”

Huntington Honda’s Marketing Director Jeffrey Hindla talked about the business’ commitment to be part of the community.

“We can really make these dogs’ lives better,” Hindla said Saturday. “We’re super excited to be working with the Town of Huntington and I can’t wait to do more with them.”

Give a Dog a Dream is planning to host more adoption events in the near future. To donate to the foundation or to learn more, visit www.giveadogadream.org.

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Residents wrote a message or the name of someone they lost to a drug overdose at the top of the white bags and placed them around the base of Gabriel Phillippe’s Belonging Tree during the candlelight ceremony. Photo by Giselle Barkley

Love and grief go hand-in-hand when it comes to the death of a family member.

Six years after 15-year-old Gabriel Phillippe died of a heroin overdose, his family, members of the North Shore Youth Council and surrounding community, showed that love never dies in the midst of tragedy.

Last Friday, the Phillippe family and town residents joined the youth council in remembering Gabe, who died on April 22, 2010, and others who lost their battle to an addiction. According to North Shore Youth Council Executive Director Janene Gentile, the ceremony, Light A Candle For Gabe and Those We Have Lost Due to the Battle of Addiction, focused on supporting one another and honoring the emotions that accompany the drug-related death of a loved one. Claudia Friszell, an advisory committee member for the Families in Support of Treatment organization, reminded those in attendance that remembering loved ones is a process.

“In order for you to heal, you no longer wear your grief as a badge,” Friszell said during the ceremony. “But you own it and hold onto it and let it go. That doesn’t mean you stop grieving or stop remembering. It just means you’ve let that grief evolve.”

According to social worker and attorney Millicent Garofalo, grief is a sign of how much one person or people loved another. Garofalo added that the community discusses a parent’s grief over losing a child, but forgets that this situation also affects siblings.

Residents wrote a message or the name of someone they lost to a drug overdose at the top of the white bags and placed them around the base of Gabriel Phillippe’s Belonging Tree, above, during the candlelight ceremony. Photo by Giselle Barkley
Residents wrote a message or the name of someone they lost to a drug overdose at the top of the white bags and placed them around the base of Gabriel Phillippe’s Belonging Tree, above, during the candlelight ceremony. Photo by Giselle Barkley

“They’re losing someone they’ve known forever,” Garofalo said during the ceremony. “When you lose the sibling, you’re losing a part of yourself.”

Gabe’s father, Bryan Phillippe, was among the ceremony speakers at the youth council’s headquarters on the Joseph A. Edgar Intermediate School grounds. While he said his family did what they could to help Gabe, he added that addicts must also be willing to accept help. Marcie Wilson, office manager at the youth council, said this wasn’t the first time Gabe’s family contacted the youth council about holding a candle lighting for the teen and others who died because of addiction.

Each resident received a small white bag containing a flameless candle that attendees placed at the base of Gabe’s Belonging Tree outside the North Shore Youth Council. Attendees were asked to write down a positive and negative memory. Papers containing negative memories were burned after residents finished arranging the white bags and placing white flowers into Gabe’s tree.

“This disease has affected Long Island so badly, and the disease of addiction is a family disease,” said Huntington Station resident Emma Amoreisky, whose son battled alcohol addiction for several years. She added that while she understands the pain of those whose children are still suffering, she “can’t even imagine the pain of the ones who’ve already lost their child.”

According to Founder and Executive Director of FIST, Anthony Rizzuto, addiction doesn’t discriminate. Some families or individuals dealing with drug addiction aren’t always comfortable asking for help. Rizzuto said, “until we can stop the stigma and stop the shame associated with addiction, it’s going to be really hard to make a difference.”

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Thanks to the efforts of Angela’s House Founder and Executive Director Bob Policastro, the Angel of Hope statue has been in Eisenhower Park since 2008. The Angel of Hope: A Walk to Remember event on May 7 will conclude at the statue. Photo from Angela’s House

By Alex Petroski

The pain of losing a child may never go away, but it can be soothed by the support of others who know what it is like. Parents will have that opportunity on May 7 when the Hauppauge-based nonprofit organization Angela’s House, which was founded in 1992, hosts the first Angel of Hope: A Walk to Remember.

Thanks to the efforts of Angela’s House Founder and Executive Director Bob Policastro, the Angel of Hope statue has been in Eisenhower Park since 2008. The Angel of Hope: A Walk to Remember event on May 7 will conclude at the statue. Photo from Angela’s House
Thanks to the efforts of Angela’s House Founder and Executive Director Bob Policastro, the Angel of Hope statue has been in Eisenhower Park since 2008. The Angel of Hope: A Walk to Remember event on May 7 will conclude at the statue. Photo from Angela’s House

The walk will take place Mother’s Day weekend at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, where the nonprofit’s Angel of Hope statue has stood since 2008 as a comforting symbol to parents who have lost children.

Angela’s House assists families caring for children with special health care needs that are medically fragile, chronically ill or living with a life-threatening illness, according to their website. Founder and Executive Director Bob Policastro said the event would be a nonreligious, yet spiritual gathering.

“I would say different from our support group or even a counselor, the difficulty of those environments [is] you have to be ready and have to talk about your pain and that kind of brings about peace as you talk it through,” Policastro said in a phone interview Friday about the walk and what those interested in attending should expect. “This one I feel has kind of an easier tone to it in the sense that you’re coming to a ceremony and the comfort of seeing others that have also gone through all of this will give people great peace knowing that they’re not alone. They can talk to people if they want to but if they don’t want to that’s fine.”

The purpose of the event is not to raise funds, according to Policastro, though there is a $25 charge per person to participate.

Policastro said the date was a strategic choice by Angela’s House trustees and volunteers.

“Mother’s Day is always one of those potentially difficult times of the year,” he said. “That will be a good way to kind of help try to bring them peace, almost like a support group. To get together and be around others that have also experienced loss, it’s very comforting.”

Policastro and his wife Angie started the foundation after the death of their daughter Angela. The Angel of Hope is a reference to the book “The Christmas Box” by Richard Paul Evans in which a character frequently visits the grave of her daughter, which is marked with an angel statue. Statues like the one in Eisenhower Park popped up across the country after the release of the book in 1993, Policastro said. He was instrumental in bringing the statue to Eisenhower Park.

The walk is less than a mile long and will follow a path around Salisbury Lake in the park, concluding at the statue. The New Apostolic Church and the Willow Interfaith Woman’s Choir will lead those in attendance in a song, and a nondenominational spiritual ceremony will also be held.

Those seeking more information are instructed to visit www.angelashouse.org/angel-of-hope/.

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