Bellmore
CoMMuNIty uPDAtE Infections as of Dec. 7
2,327
Infections as of Nov. 30 2,155
HERALD
LOOk iNSide
Holiday Wrapping Paper Contest drawn by our young readers
Santa Claus comes to town
Chabad marks Hanukkah
Boy Scout helps last Hope
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$1.00 $1.00
DECEMBER 10 - 16, 2020
Vol. 23 No. 50
Central preps for second Covid-19 wave
BEllMoRE RESIDENtS olIVIA and Athena Silver collected thousands of books over the last month to benefit the Book Fairies. The books will be distributed to schools throughout New York state.
John F. Kennedy High School — have closed temporarily for contact tracing. The Bellmore-Merrick CenAt the meeting, DeTommaso tral High School District Board said that administrative teams at of Education met each school begin virtually on Dec. 2 contact tracing 48 for an update from hours from the Superintendent time someone first John DeTommaso shows symptoms on where the disof Covid-19. In trict stands as the addition to seating coronavirus pancharts, busing and demic ramps up. c a r p o o l s, t h e s e The district teams monitor reopened its five “what’s happening buildings for full, outside of school,” in-person learning he said, “but it on Sept. 21 after becomes a little implementing a JoHN DEtoMMASo more challenging hybrid lear ning Superintendent, to monitor events model during the BMCHSD that happen off first two weeks of campus.” classes. Since then, Last week, both three of its schools — Grand Mepham and Kennedy closed for Avenue Middle School, Welling- one day of contact tracing after ton C. Mepham High School and CoNTiNueD oN page 9
By AlySSA SEIDMAN aseidman@liherald.com
W
e need to continue to work together about what’s happening outside of school.
Courtesy Deanna Silver
Sisters from Bellmore share the gift of reading By ANDREW GARCIA agarcia@liherald.com
Over the past month, the garage of the Silver family in Bellmore has been packed to the ceiling with cardboard boxes filled with thousands of books. On Tuesday, the books were set to be loaded into vans and shipped out for charity. The collection was spearheaded by sisters Athena and Olivia Silver, 15 and 13, to benefit the Book Fairies, a non-
profit organization that distributes books to children and communities in need throughout New York and beyond. Although the Silvers have volunteered for the Book Fairies in the past, this was the first book drive they hosted. They posted fliers throughout Bellmore inviting residents to drop off donations at their home from Nov. 8 to Dec. 8. The sisters packed nearly 200 boxes worth of reading material, which totaled thou-
sands of books, they estimated. “We wanted to give other students the opportunities we had growing up: a school library with all of the resources,” Olivia said. “Hopefully, now, some other schools will have the resources we had.” “And they can find the passions that we have,” Athena added. Literature isn’t just a charitable endeavor for the Silvers CoNTiNueD oN page 5
Our COvid-19 traCker With the Covid-19 test positivity rate rising across the country, the Herald is adding a weekly coronavirus tracker to the upper-left corner of our front page to help you gauge what’s happening in your area from week to week. The number is an aggregate of the communities that this newspaper covers. Data is obtained from the Nassau County Covid-19 Dashboard, which provides the total number of cases reported in an area since the start of the pandemic, and is updated regularly.