Are you apprehensive about the upcoming holidays? Feeling alone and missing the presence of a loved one? A workshop entitled “Grief and the Holidays” will be offered at Mt. Sinai Congregational Church, 233 North County Road, Mount Sinai on Saturday, Dec. 17 from 10 a.m. to noon by the Caring Ministry of MSUCC. All are welcome! Please call the church office at 631-473-1582, or email [email protected] to register.
Hundreds of courageous community members plunged into the icy waters of Cedar Beach on Saturday, Nov. 19, during this year’s rendition of the Freezin’ for a Reason Polar Plunge.
The Town of Brookhaven puts this annual event together to raise money for the Special Olympics New York organization. Proceeds from the event support training for athletes, equipment, health supplies and attire.
Saturday’s event has raised over $128,000, according to the nonprofit’s website which proclaims that it “provides inclusive opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities to discover and unleash the champion within.”
Hundreds of plungers from across the region participated in the plunge, with many more spectating warmly from afar. Town of Brookhaven Councilwoman Jane Bonner (R-Rocky Point), a perennial “plunger,” made the daring plunge again.
In an interview with Bonner, she was asked what motivates her to take the cold water dip year after year. Her response, jokingly: “We ask ourselves that every year,” she said.
Bonner, who took the plunge this year with Special Olympians Daniel and Joey, said she finds renewed joy and optimism through her involvement in the activities.
“When you meet all those Special Olympians and interview them … it’s impossible not to get caught up in the adrenaline and momentum of supporting them and other athletes,” she said. “It’s about $400 to $500 per athlete per sport, and no family is ever charged,” adding, “These plunges … help out so many athletes and families.”
Plunging with Bonner was Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney (R). Before making his plunge, the district attorney expressed some apprehensions, joking, “Unlike Jane and the rest, I am a coward so I’m trying to figure out what brought me to this stage.”
Despite his self-professed reluctance, Tierney did take the plunge. Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine (R), on the other hand, also made an appearance though avoiding the frigid waters.
During a speech, the town supervisor described the plunge as a meaningful sacrifice in serving the greater good. “At the end of the day, you may be a little cold, but this world is going to be a lot happier for what the people are going to do plunging today,” he said.
This year’s polar plunge brought together hundreds of athletes, students and community members who suffered in unity. Bonner said an event such as this makes the community a better place.
“Regardless of political affiliation, color, economic status — there’s no barrier,” the town councilwoman said. “We’re all doing this same thing for the same cause, and it’s hard not to feel good about it at the end of the day.”
— Photos by Raymond Janis
Over 100 community members raced through the paths of Heritage Park on Saturday, Nov. 19, for the inaugural Mount Sinai 5K Turkey Trot Walk/Run.
North Shore Youth Council hosted the event, with proceeds supporting local families on Thanksgiving. Bobby Woods, executive director of NSYC, detailed the motivations for putting the event together.
“I also own a few gyms, so a lot of my members wanted to do something to raise funds for local families,” he said. “The proceeds of this event are going to be used, in partnership with Crossover Christian Church [in Mount Sinai], to feed 100 families next Thursday on Thanksgiving.”
Partnerships such as these are carried out fairly often by NSYC, a 42-year-old nonprofit charity dedicated to assisting youth and families throughout the area. The council offers after-school programs, affordable child care, mental health services and community-building events, among other initiatives.
“Today, we have a little over 100 participants,” Woods said. “They’re going to try to get in a little over 3 miles, and it’s just for fun, too.”
The executive director said his two passions in life are fitness and community-building. For him, the Turkey Trot event is a way to integrate these passions and “leverage both of these platforms.” However, the event is not only a way to get fit but to support community members in need.
“The families that we’re feeding, to put yourself in their shoes, there are going to be people that wake up that are unable to feed their kids, and there’s a lot of gravity to that,” Woods said. “There are going to be 100 families that can wake up now and have a great day with their kids, and I think that’s the youth council’s mission statement — and it has always been my statement at the gym.”
Another of NSYC’s central goals is to inspire community youth to be active, motivated and stewards for positive change. Lawrence Kogel, NSYC president, offered how the 5K event plays into that broader theme.
“The other focus of the youth council is to have a vehicle to allow youth to have something to do other than playing video games and getting in trouble,” he said. “All these activities — which are spread from Shoreham, Wading River, through Rocky Point and Miller Place, to Mount Sinai and Sound Beach — are to help the youth in the community. That’s really what our organization is all about.”
Runners, joggers and walkers of all ages completed 3 1/2 circumnavigations of Heritage Park for a total of 5 kilometers. The location of the Turkey Trot carried symbolic meaning, according to Kogel, fulfilling the original intent for creating this central community hub.
“It’s a partnership between the county, the Town of Brookhaven, our organization and the civic associations and other community groups that participate in the use of the building, which was the original vision of the Heritage Park,” he said.
To follow other upcoming community events coordinated by the youth council, visit the website www.nsyc.com.
Mount Sinai’s student government members featured the 12th edition of their “Safe Trick or Treat” celebration on Saturday, Oct. 29, drawing over 1,100 trick-or-treaters, according to student government faculty advisor Roger Cardo.
Admission was free, although donations were welcomed to cover the cost of all the candy and refreshments.
Non-perishable food items were collected to benefit local food kitchens. The students set up the night before and were in at 7 a.m. to finish setting up more than a dozen rooms, which included the Haunted Hallway, Best Buddies, the Ocean Bowl and the Balloon Room, to name a few.
Mr. Cardo credited the large turnout to word of mouth, the fliers that were circulated at the middle school, along with the efforts of more than 30 student government members, and seniors Destina Erden, Amanda Audia, Kate Rubino and Amr Ali. Fun was had by all.
— Photos by Bill Landon
Born 90 years ago this past Sunday, Al Kopcienski of Miller Place has led a life of uninterrupted service to his community.
Kopcienski’s sizable extended family flew in from around the country Oct. 22 to honor his life. On this joyous occasion, his daughter Elizabeth Schwartz thought it necessary to look back on her father’s life and reflect upon his achievements.
In an interview, Schwartz shared her father’s long commitment to the area. “My dad has been so invested in this community in a very quiet way,” she said. “The community needs to know. We need to remember people who are our unsung heroes.”
Kopcienski’s legacy of community service spans nearly a century. Among his many posts, he served as president of the Mount Sinai School District Board of Education, more than 60 years with the Port Jefferson Rotary Club, and the Miller Place Fire Department where he served as chief from 1967-68.
He lives by the Rotarian motto, “Service above self.” Schwartz said she and her siblings were also raised to follow this ethos.
“We were all raised — all eight of us — were raised with this mantra, ‘Service above self,’ that hard work is good work, that our job is to give to the community,” she said. “It is about community and not always about one person or self.”
Over the past nine decades, Kopcienski has witnessed firsthand the gradual transformation of the area. He said the little farming economy he once knew has gradually become a bustling environment.
“This area was a big farming area, and through the transition of years the farmers have disappeared,” he said. “The farming industry disappeared, and then the developers came in and started building houses.”
Despite the differences today from the undisturbed landscape Kopcienski knew growing up, he said young people can still derive vital lessons from his generation.
“One of my favorite sayings is ‘rest means rust,’” he said, emphasizing the value of physical movement and manual labor. “The service industry is well organized and has well-paying positions.”
While on the Mount Sinai school board, Kopcienski pushed for expanding opportunities for students pursuing professional trades. While today, many may place higher education at a premium, he still sees the value of these alternative career paths.
“There was a local superintendent of schools that would say, ‘All my kids graduate and go on to college,’” Kopcienski said. “I said to him, ‘What about the poor kid that can’t go on to college? What about the kid who went to BOCES, a trade school, where he spent half the day at school and then learned a trade?’” He added, “One of the problems we have is that people don’t want to get their hands dirty.”
Even at 90 years old, Kopcienski is still getting his hands dirty today, driving the ambulance for the fire department. He said he receives his fair share of raised eyebrows when arriving on the scene of an emergency.
“They say, ‘That old man’s driving the ambulance?’” he joked. Schwartz interjected, adding, “He comes home and tells us about all of the old people he drives to the hospital. And I said, ‘The old people, like 20 years younger than you, Pop?’ He said, ‘Yeah.’”
Despite the many changes he has observed over time, Kopcienski sees reason for hope. With 24 grandchildren, he now gets his chance to sit back, watch and follow the rising generation as it embarks on its path.
Still, at 90, there appear to be no signs of rust or rest on this lifelong community servant.
After a deadlocked score at halftime, the Shoreham-Wading River Wildcats rattled off three unanswered scores in the third quarter, surging ahead at home against the Mustangs of Mount Sinai on Friday, Oct. 21.
Senior quarterback Dylan Zahn hit wide receiver Kieran Clifford on a 63-yard pass for the touchdown at the 8:27 mark. Zahn then connected with Liam Kershis for the 33-yard play that went the distance for the score six minutes later.
With 0:17 left in the quarter, Kershis punched in on short yardage to put the Wildcats out front 38-17. Shoreham-Wading River kicker Sean Palmer was perfect on the night, splitting the uprights seven times, one of which was a 24-yard field goal attempt.
Mount Sinai senior running back Jake Spallina answered back, finding the endzone on short yardage to cut the deficit to 38-23 with eight minutes left. Kershis, who rushed for 121 yards on 14 carries, broke free, covering 27 yards for the score to put his team ahead 45-23 with 3 minutes left in regulation.
Mount Sinai senior quarterback Jaden Rotella threw deep to wide receiver Drew Feinstein for a 73-yard pass for the score. Feinstein then capped off the drive by running it in on the two-point conversion to trail 45-31, which was the final score.
Zahn completed 22 of 30 passes for 298 yards and three touchdowns.
The win lifts the Wildcats to 4-3 on the season, with postseason play kicking off Friday, Nov. 4.
— Photos by Bill Landon
Despite the pouring rain outside, dozens of locals gathered at Mount Sinai High School on Thursday, Oct. 13, for an educational forum on substance misuse prevention.
Hosted by Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker (D-Mount Sinai), who chairs the county’s addiction prevention and support advisory panel, the event brought together various entities. In her presentation, Anker emphasized the outsized rate of drug-related fatalities in the area.
“Right now, the town of Brookhaven has the highest number of opioid deaths in Suffolk County — one of the highest in the state — and we have to do more,” she said. The legislator added, referring to the county government, “We’re trying, but it’s really up to the community. It’s up to the parents, kids and peers to do more and get us in a better place.”
Anker highlighted the need for drug addiction and prevention workshops, stating that these provide an outlet for community members to better prepare themselves in case of an emergency. She also noted that drug education has evolved in recent years, addressing victims’ needs rather than creating stigma.
The county’s DASH [diagnostic, assessment and stabilization hub] program was cited by her as a model for responsible drug intervention. “When people overdose, they go to an emergency [room] at Stony Brook or Mather or St. Charles or one of the hospitals here in Suffolk County, but what do you do after?” Anker said. “Before, they would just go home or go somewhere. There would be no support, no direction. Now there is.” She added, “New York State is taking that example and making more throughout the state.”
Also present at this community forum was Town of Brookhaven Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook), chair of the town’s Drug Prevention Coalition. He considered the coalition a valuable public resource for Brookhaven residents.
“That’s a model of getting the school districts involved, of all kinds of community organizations from a grassroots level, so that we can really get down to that family level,” he said. For Kornreich, the goal of the coalition is to “be accessible and get people connected to the services they need and bring prevention programs to schools … so that we can break that cycle of use and abuse before it starts.”
Another essential component of the forum was its presentations on drug awareness. Among the speakers throughout the night was Mark Murray, chief of the narcotics bureau for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.
Murray delivered a detailed presentation on the dangers of fentanyl, which he said has become increasingly problematic for county communities.
“Since 2016 here in Suffolk, fentanyl has viciously made its mark,” he said. “We have easily averaged over 300 fatal overdoses a year here in Suffolk, due primarily to the presence of fentanyl.”
Murray characterized fentanyl as a highly potent substance, requiring just “a grain or two” to deliver a lethal dose. According to the narcotics chief, fentanyl is found in nearly every drug on the black market.
“Fentanyl is popular, it’s addictive — and there’s no such thing as a scrupulous drug dealer,” he said.
Given the frequency of fentanyl-related overdoses in Suffolk, Murray stressed the importance of the Good Samaritan Law. This New York State statute protects victims and witnesses of overdose events.
“It covers a witness or a victim of any medical episode — but more specifically a drug or alcohol overdose — who decides to call 911 either for themselves or that third person,” he said. “It’s not a trick. It’s statutory. It was codified by the state because they wanted to encourage people to realize the importance of the situation and to pick up the phone, call and get help.”
Following the presentations from Murray and other speakers, attendees were given training instructions in naloxone.
To learn more about the addiction resources, including emergency hotline numbers, visit the Long Island Addiction Resource Center website: longislandaddictionresourcecenter.org.
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