UNIONLEADER UNIONNEWSDAILY.COM
MAY 2022
VOL. 07 NO. 03
Teachers are learning
— See Page 2
Library is demolished
Photo Courtesy of Samantha Casternovia
Samuel Casternovia and his daughter, Samantha Casternovia, sit beside some of the new children’s clothing, pajamas and toys boxed on top of a pallet stacker. Behind them is a sign urging people to help Ukrainian children by dropping off supplies.
Local business owners collect vital children’s items for Ukrainian refugees — See Page 6
Pitcher is incredible
— See Page 12
By David Jablonski Managing Editor When Union businessman Samuel Casternovia and his daughter, Samantha, heard reports of Ukrainian refugees fleeing to neighboring Poland with nothing but the clothing on their backs, they decided to do something about it. “My father and I, we were watching the news, and we saw that a lot of people had gone there to Poland, and we figured that would be a good place to send things,” Samantha Casternovia said in an interview with Union County LocalSource on Monday, April 18. “We’re business owners in Union and we’re collecting new children’s clothing, new children’s pajamas and new Teddy bears for refugees from Ukraine who are currently in Poland,” she continued. Helping others is not something
that’s new to Samuel Casternovia or his family. When they see people who are hungry or suffering, he said, they feel compelled to help. “We do turkey baskets every year, but whenever there’s something special, we try to do something,” said Samantha Casternovia. She said that in the 1980s, her father built a special trailer and he and her mother drove 500 pounds of pasta down to Mississippi after a flood. She also remembers a whole room full of stuffed animals to be donated in 2002 and 2003, when she was very young. “The stuffed animals were for children affected by a string of tornadoes out West.” But this time, Samuel Casternovia said he felt a sense of urgency much greater than ever before, one he felt needed to be explained and resolved,
one that started when he had first developed cancer. “My first cancer was ulcerative colitis,” said Samuel Casternovia on Monday, April 18. “I survived it, but not until after years of research. I remember researching high incidences of ulcerative colitis and what struck me was that, after World War II, the children of European countries had an extremely high rate of ulcerative colitis and development of cancer from broken families and the trauma they suffered. “Fast-forward to Ukrainian children,” he continued. “I thought it might make a small difference for a child in the midst of chaos to have new clothes or a new teddy bear to hug and keep safe. Maybe keeping their teddy bear safe will empower them to move See CLOTHING, Page 8