Pack the family into the car for a Birds of Prey Drive Thru at Sweetbriar Nature Center, 62 Eckernkamp Drive, Smithtown on Thursday, March 4. You’ll be meeting and learning about five of their raptor animal ambassadors from the comfort of your own car. Choose a time slot between 3 and 5 p.m. Tickets are $25 per car. Register at www.sweetbriarnc.org. For more information, call 631-979-6344.
*This event was updated on Feb. 3 to reflect the new date.
By Heidi Sutton
Last Thursday, Nov. 12, the Ward Melville Heritage Organization (WMHO) hosted a New Beginnings Virtual Party fundraiser to benefit the restoration and maintenance of a very special place — the T. Bayles Minuse Mill Pond Park aka the Stony Brook Duck Pond. Located along Main Street in Stony Brook Village adjacent to the Grist Mill, the charming park has been enjoyed by countless families over the years.
This past summer Tropical Storm Isaias ripped through the park and uprooted over a dozen trees. There was also major damage to the park’s Braille engraved handrails, the borders maintaining the gardens and the walkways along the pond.
The 90 minute live Zoom event was hosted by Richard Wiese, President of The Explorer’s Club in NYC and host of PBS’s Born to Explore and co-host of Weekends with Yankee.
Now living in Connecticut, Wiese grew up in Head of the Harbor and has always had a special connection to the park. “I just have so many fond memories of the Mill Pond. The more I travel around the world, the more I see how special and unique the Stony Brook area is. I can actually say that the Village of Stony Brook may be even prettier than it was in the 1960s when I first became familiar with it,” he said.
The fun evening included an appearance by award-winning reporter and News 12 host of Road Trip Close to Home, Elisa DiStefano; and host of Fox Nation: Celebrate America and five-time New York Times bestselling author, including George Washington’s Secret Six, Brian Kilmeade. The event also featured performances by Tom Manuel and The Jazz Loft’s Equity Brass Band; America’s Got Talent finalist, Sal “the Voice” Valentinetti; and comedian Rich Walker.
DiStefano, who grew up in Hauppauge, visited the park right after the storm and covered the story for News 12. “Stony Brook Village I grew up going to as a treat … Because of the extensive damage [from the storm] it looked like a war zone that day but meeting Gloria Rocchio [President of the WMHO] and her team and seeing their positivity, there was no doubt in my mind that they would do everything they could to restore the area to what it was before,” she said.
Kilmeade, who hosted the evening’s interactive history challenge, “A History Mystery,” lauded Rocchio and the WMHO for keeping the past and Ward Melville’s vision alive. “You can go to [Stony Brook Village] and you really think you’ve gone back 200 years … during the holidays it looks like a movie set. I believe that’s what Ward Melville wanted. He wanted everyone to remember what it was like. While we move forward with progress we can still go back in time.”
The virtual party was the perfect instrument to introduce the WMHO’s New Beginnings online auction to raise money for this wonderful cause. Available through Dec. 16, it features items starting at $50 and covers everything from travel, fashion, art, antiques, food and wine, health and wellness and unique experiences. Generously donated auction items include a private four-person fishing charter, a family portrait session, a military tank ride, dinner for 4 aboard a superyacht, pizza every month for a year, a golf outing for four, an exclusive champagne toast and drinks for six at the Explorer’s Club with Richard Wiese, a trip to Barbados and much, much more.
The New Beginnings Online Auction is as easy as eBay with free registration to bid on the auction items. You will be notified if someone outbids you and you can bid again and again. The successful bidder’s card will not be charged until the last day of the auction — at midnight on Dec. 16, giving guests plenty of time to compete for a good cause.
100% of the funds generated from this event will support the restoration and maintenance of the T. Bayles Minuse Mill Pond Park.
To register for the New Beginnings Online Auction, please visit wmho.org/the-ward-melville-heritage-organization/virtualbenefit/. For more information, please call 631-751-2244.
Bethel Hobbs Community Farm is taking its annual fundraiser virtual Saturday, Sept. 5 through Sunday, Sept. 13.
Brookhaven Town Councilman Kevin LaValle (R-Selden) announced he will co-sponsor the sixth annual Run the Farm Four Mile Challenge with Suffolk County Legislator Tom Muratore (R-Ronkonkoma) and Friends of Hobbs Farm. Participants are invited to lace up their sneakers and traverse the four-mile course that includes a fast start on roughly two miles of flat terrain leading to a mile of rolling hills and two mildly challenging ascents before concluding at the historic grounds of Bethel Hobbs Community Farm in Centereach. The first 300 participants will receive a 4M Run the Farm buff and be entered in a special raffle. To register, people can visit BrookhavenNY.Gov/RunTheFarm.
People can run or walk whenever they like. After running, they can go to www.elitefeats.com/Results and click on the Bethel Hobbs event to enter their name and time. They can also optionally upload up to five photos.
Proceeds will go toward repairing the Hobbs Community Farm barn that is critical to the farm’s functions, whose mission is devoted to providing fresh, wholesome produce to local food pantries and other programs in the community. Even if one doesn’t run, they can make a donation for any amount and be entered in the raffle to win a special prize. This year’s event is sponsored by ShopRite of Selden, owned and operated by the Gallagher family and Middle Country Automotive (MCA) of Selden and MCA II of Centereach.
“Hobbs Community Farm plays such an important role in the community and they rely on this annual event to continue their good work,” LaValle said. “I am proud to once again join Legislator Muratore to help make this year’s virtual ‘Run the Farm Four Mile Challenge’ a success and I thank the runners and our sponsors for their support.”
People can call LaValle’s office at 631-451-6647, email at [email protected] and visit BrookhavenNY.Gov/RunTheFarm for more information.
Visit Sweetbriar Nature Center, 62 Eckernkamp Drive, Smithtown for a special Creatures of the Night fundraiser program on Friday, July 17 from 7 to 8 p.m. Meet some nocturnal animals and embark on a walk into the darkness to enjoy the night and maybe call in an owl or two. Bug spray is highly recommended, bring a flashlight, and bring a mask for when you can’t physically distance more than 6 feet. The hike will be self guided and the trails will be lit with lanterns. Adults and teens only. Cost is $10 per person. To purchase tickets, visit www.sweetbriarnc.org. For more information, call 631-979-6344.
Every 10 years, the people at the head of the annual Miller Place-Rocky Point St. Patrick’s Day Parade honor all the past community members who were lucky enough to be named grand marshal.
As the annual parade looks down the barrel of its 70th anniversary, the people who run the second oldest parade in Suffolk County have the task of respecting the past while looking to continue its run into the future.
The Friends of St. Patrick, a group of volunteers who have helped put on the parade for the last seven decades, hosted its third annual Luck of the Irish Casino Night March 6. During the group’s biggest yearly fundraiser, members said they were not only acknowledging the past, but trying to look toward the future.
“It costs about $40,000 to put this parade on, so fundraisers like this really help.”
— Hugh McCarrick
Unlike previous years when members would nominate a queen and her court, along with a grand marshal, this year members announced instead they would be supporting a local student with a $1,000 scholarship.
“The applications for [the queen and her court] were going way down, and we were seeing it as sort of a bygone era,” said James McElhone, the recently installed treasurer of the Friends of St. Patrick. “We decided to make it a scholarship that would be rotating between several local high schools to encourage people to write an essay on their Irish heritage.”
This year, Alexa Zichinelli, a senior at Miller Place High School, won with her essay about her Irish heritage, particularly of her great grandmother on her father’s side who came from Ireland during the Irish Potato Famine.
Her grandmother often talks about that history, of when her own mother was in County Clare in Ireland. Zichinelli wrote about the Irish folklore her grandmother loves to talk about, along with the family she left behind.
“Going to where my great-grandmother was from in Ireland, she lived by these rocks that she described looked over a cliff, so it was just kind of magic, where she was from,” she said.
Zichinelli said she will put the scholarship to use, as she intends to go to college for premed, particularly on the path toward being a pediatric heart surgeon.
Those who have been grand marshal in the past see the parade differently than most. It’s a tradition, yes, but it’s also been a way to celebrate and even define the North Shore communities along the Route 25A corridor. With 70 years of history, grand marshals have included noted community members like state Sen. Ken LaValle (R-Port Jefferson), who was named grand marshal in 1989.
One family sticks out among those in the Rocky Point area. The McCarrick family owns property in the Rocky Point shopping district that once included the famed McCarrick’s Dairy before it closed in 2017 and later became a 7/11. Hugh McCarrick, one of the officers of the Friends of St. Patrick, said nine separate members of the McCarrick clan have been named grand marshal over the years. He and his brother Kevin, along with a slew of other past marshals, were both honored at the casino night March 6.
“Seventy means a tremendous amount.”
— Walter Colleran
Hugh McCarrick, who was named grand marshal in 1997, said going forward the objective is to make the parade more interesting every year, but with around 85 units in the parade this year, he added they are going strong. He thanked East Wind for hosting the fundraiser, which is easily its biggest of the year.
“It costs about $40,000 to put this parade on, so fundraisers like this really help,” he said.
Mike Tatilian, a grand marshal in 2015 and past president of the Friends of St. Patrick, said times have changed and they are always trying to bring in flesh blood to help out. Nothing else says that times have changed in seven decades than the number of St. Patrick’s Day parades around Suffolk County. While the Huntington parade is in its 86th year, hamlets like Kings Park and Jamesport are celebrating only their 10th and seventh years, respectively, of the annual parade. Tatilian said they’re always trying to compete for spectators, of which the MP-RP parade usually gets 25,000-30,000 along its 3-mile run.
“There’s competition — you’re competing for fans,” he said. “When there used to be a few parades, now there’s many.”
Walter Colleran was named grand marshal in 2013 and said 70 years means a lot to a parade, also helping to display how its changed.
“Seventy means a tremendous amount — [the parade] started out years ago as an opportunity for everybody to hang out on the street and drink beer, but over the years it’s turned into a very family-oriented affair.”
By Julianne Mosher
The Brookhaven Ballroom at Danfords was filled with hundreds of people to celebrate and support one of their own this week through the family’s bout with cancer.
Dara Cohen, originally of Dix Hills, has been living under the weight of cancer for years, battling Stage 4 breast, brain and lung cancer, and now friends said it has metastasized in her lower spinal cord. The actress and professional dancer works as a ballet teacher when she feels up to it, but the disease has had a lasting effect.
It was just a few months ago when Dara Cohen’s sister, Jami, who bartends at the hotel in PJ, came to work and asked her managers if they could help her create a fundraiser.
The goal was to raise $100,000 for the 46-year-old dancer, singer and actress.
“They immediately said yes,” Jami Cohen, of Port Jefferson, said. “I couldn’t ask for better people to work with.”
On Monday, Nov. 11, Danfords donated its space upstairs and an extensive menu at its buffet to the Cohen family.
“Obviously it’s an unbelievable cause,” Enrico Scarda, owner of Danfords, said, “And we do whatever we can to support our employees.”
A DJ blasted music while people mingled. Lamar Peters, a tribute artist known for his Elvis, Johnny Cash and Buddy Holly impersonations, came out to play, and over 100 gifts were donated to the raffle table.
“All of us are here to unite and break course for Dara,” Dara’s father Shelly Cohen said. “We’re looking to make a difference and these people are coming out to help our daughter.”
Tickets were $40 for the three-hour event and the outcome was a huge success. Although Dara couldn’t be in attendance, she video-called in and was grateful for the response given in her honor.
Known for her popular social media posts chronicling her journey, Dara’s goal has been to help other people struggling as well.
“She’s an amazing person,” Dara’s mother Karen Deangelis, said. “Dara has made an impact on other people and has a tremendous amount of support … Hopefully we can help other people, too.”
By Bill Landon
Back by popular demand, the Harlem Wizards basketball team returned to Smithtown West High School Feb. 28 where they took on the Smithtown faculty all star team in a basketball fundraiser to benefit the Distributive Education Clubs of America club.
The student Club members who organized the event took care of the gate, the Wizard memorabilia sales, the raffles and the 50/50 sales infront of a packed crowd. Fun was had by all.
A Three Village family is helping to raise awareness about a rare disorder.
Hope for Histiocytosis is hosting a fundraiser April 7 in Port Jefferson. The foundation was inspired by the frustrations felt by Setauket residents Alexandra and Christopher Calderone after the couple struggled to find a diagnosis for their daughter Amelia a few years ago. Doctors eventually diagnosed Amelia with Langerhans cell histiocytosis, a disorder where the body produces too many of a type of white blood cell that helps the body fight off infection.
Now 8 years old and in third grade in Setauket Elementary School, Amelia was only 5 years old and in kindergarten, her mother said, when she started to complain that her back was sore in the morning. At first the Calderone family thought it was due to a new mattress being too firm for her or from wearing a backpack to school. Periodic fevers soon followed, and she would come home from school feeling nauseous. She would also complain of seeing black spots in her vision and said she had a wood taste in her mouth. As the school year progressed, her teacher told her mother that Amelia was having trouble reciting what she learned that day.
While the parents brought her to a group practice of pediatricians continuously, doctors couldn’t come up with a diagnosis, and while Lyme disease was first suspected, it was initially ruled out. It wasn’t until the parents asked to see the head doctor of the practice who reviewed her tests that Lyme disease was considered as a possibility.
The diagnosis led to Amelia, who at the time was 6, to visit a rheumatologist where doctors found a mass on her spine.
“The red flag was up, ‘OK, there’s something wrong here,’” Alexandra Calderone said.
The parents then brought her to Cohen’s Children Medical Center where Dr. Carolyn Fein Levy treated Amelia and the LCH diagnosis was finally given. While the journey to an answer was a difficult one, Calderone said her daughter was a trooper during everything, and her last chemo treatment was in September 2018.
“She’s really so mature, and handled the doctors, the scans, the blood work, the pain,” she said.
Last year friend and neighbor Jennifer Scarlatos, co-owner of Toast Coffeehouse in Port Jefferson, decided she wanted to do something to help Amelia who is friends with her son Everett. She said she wasn’t sure what she was going to do but wanted to do something.
“She’s spirited,” Scarlatos said. “She’s just so sweet, and I don’t know, you just love her from the beginning.”
Scarlatos organized a fundraiser at Theatre Three where attendees enjoyed a children’s musical and afterward gathered in the downstairs area for a party that included raffles and balloon animal making for the children.
She told Calderone to use the money for what she thought was best. These funds helped the mother establish Hope for Histiocytosis. Scarlatos said she is happy she was able to help kick start the foundation after last year’s fundraiser.
“I would love to help with anything else they’re going to do in the future too because they’re a wonderful family,” she said.
Calderone hopes her foundation and the fundraiser will bring awareness to the disease, which she said many pediatricians are unaware of. She said when trying to find what’s wrong with a child, parents need to have faith in their gut feelings.
“You know your kid, and you know when things are wrong,” she said. “You can’t cower down to someone saying, ‘You’re exaggerating.’”
She said when it comes to starting a foundation or raising awareness, it has to feel right.
“I feel like this is the right next step,” Calderone said. “Now it can be sort of a healing for us to talk about it and to have the awareness.”
The mother said proceeds from the event will go toward the Pediatric Oncology Rare Tumor and Sarcoma program at Cohen’s Children Medical Center, which is led by Fein Levy.
The April 7 fundraiser will be a Sunday brunch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at The Waterview at Port Jefferson Country Club located at 44 Fairway Drive. Admission is $65 for adults and $40 for children 5 through 12 years old. The event includes a Sunday brunch with Bloody Marys and mimosas. There will also be raffle prizes, face painting and entertainment by the Sugaree Band.
For more information about the foundation, visit www.hopeforhistiocytosis.org.
Three Village veterans are hoping the community will stop by the pub Country Corner Saturday, March 2, for a fundraiser to benefit their Veterans of Foreign Wars post.
Michael Salemi, vice commander of VFW East Setauket Post 3054, said money raised that day will go toward much needed renovations of the post’s building located on Jones Street. Admission to the fundraiser will include food and one beer, and there will be raffles with prizes donated by local businesses.
Salemi said, in the past, the post has raised money for fellow veterans, especially at local homes, but recently they needed to concentrate on gathering funds for work on their post building. The group raised $2,800 during a Feb. 5 fundraiser at Madiran The Wine Bar.
“This past fundraiser at the wine bar and this one coming up at Country Corner, it kind of helps get ourselves squared away,” he said, adding once they complete renovations they can return to raising money for local veterans.
Quartermaster Jay Veronko said the post is celebrating its 85th anniversary this year with the Jones Street building being approximately 90 years old. Historian Carlton “Hub” Edwards said he remembers attending Setauket High School, which housed first to 12th grade, on Jones Street in the 1940s when the current VFW building was used by the school for gym, carpentry classes and school fundraisers. He said for years it was referred to as the scout house because a Boy Scout troop used it as a meeting place.
Veronko said even though the building has been renovated over the years, the post members are hoping to make it compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and general renovations are needed, especially in the kitchen and women’s bathroom. The post has no income, Veronko said, as they are conservative about renting out the house for parties to the general public due to it being located in a residential area.
The quartermaster said the members were appreciative of Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket) who recently coordinated a visit with local trade union representatives to the post. Hahn said it was during a visit to a VFW post in Medford that she learned that sometimes trade unions donate their time to renovate VFW posts, and many local skilled laborers want to volunteer and use their skills to help veterans, which helps defray the cost of labor.
Hahn said she recognizes the appreciation residents feel for veterans, and believes they feel it’s important local posts have what they need to continue serving vets.
“I’m just trying to help however I can as a reflection of what I know is strong support from our community as a whole,” she said. “It’s everyone’s duty to help a little bit these folks who gave so much.”
Veronko said the hope is that one day the post, which hosts the East Setauket Memorial Day Parade and Veterans Day memorial service, as well as a fall chicken barbecue fundraiser, will be able to organize more community events like flea or farmers markets.
“We’ve been part of the community for a long time,” he said. “We try to be a good neighbor, and we’re trying to reach out a little bit more.”
Country Corner is located at 270 Main St., Setauket. The fundraiser begins at 4 p.m. March 2, and admission is $30 per person. For those unable to attend the event and would like to contribute, donations can be sent to the post at 8 Jones St., East Setauket, NY 11733.
Kings Park students are asking their community to come dine together to help raise funds to help a classmate in the fight of her life.
Kings Park High School will be hosting a pasta fundraiser Jan. 31 for junior Julia Witzke, who has been diagnosed with leukemia. The event will feature karaoke, games and raffles in addition to food with all proceeds going to the Witzke family.
“When someone in Kings Park is in need of help people come out in droves,” Judy Bishop-Hart, a retired executive assistant of the district said. “We want them to know we are with them.”
“This means everything, words can’t describe how happy we are with the love Julia is receiving.”
— Denise Witzke
Bishop-Hart said fellow classmates of Witzke came up with the idea of hosting a fundraiser. They approached Bishop-Harts’s son, Jack Bishop, who currently works as a 12th-grade history teacher and others for help.
“The students went to him to see if they could plan something for Julia,” Bishop-Hart said. “They’ve put it upon themselves to make this happen.”
Witzke’s mother, Denise, said what the students and the community are doing warms her heart.
“This means everything, words can’t describe how happy we are with the love Julia is receiving,” she said.
Her mother said Witzke is currently unable to attend classes at the high school while receiving treatment. The Kings Park junior has also been disappointed about being unable to take part in typical coming-of-age events with her classmates.
“It has been hard for Julia since the diagnosis,” Denise Witzke said. “She misses being in school. — It is her junior year and she felt bad missing out on her junior prom. She was looking forward to getting her learners permit and taking drivers education classes with her friends.”
Bishop-Hart wants the Witzke family to know that they have the support of the community.
“We are with them every step of the way,” she said.
In addition to the event, students and school staff members are signing a poster with personal messages for Witzke to let her know that she is in their thoughts.
The fundraiser will be held Jan. 31 from 5 to 8 p.m. in the cafeteria of Kings Park High School, which is located at 200 Route 25A in Kings Park. The cost is $10 per person with children under age 5 free.
Volunteers are still being sought to help ensure the event runs smoothly. Anyone with questions or who is willing to offer time or services can contact Bishop-Hart at 631-896-9597.
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