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HERALD Coders in the school district
Schumer outlines goals for new year
Students learn to help others
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Vol. 26 No. 3
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JANUARY 12 - 18, 2023
Giving back, on and off the rink Merrick 16-year-old collects hockey items for the Long Island Blues By JoRDAN VAlloNE jvallone@liherald.com
Courtesy Michael Zinman
NoAH ZiNmAN, A junior at John F. Kennedy High School, is enrolled in the school’s leadership classes. For his civics project, he organized a drive to collect new and gently used hockey equipment for the Long Island Blues, a team for those with special needs.
Much of Noah Zinman’s life revolves around one thing — hockey. The 16-year-old from Merrick has been playing the sport for many years. A junior at John F. Kennedy High School in South Bellmore, he plays for the Bellmore-Merrick school district’s varsity hockey team as well as two travel teams, the Long Island Arrows and the New York Aviators. So when it came time for Zinman to figure out what to do for
his civics project in a leadership class at Kennedy, the choice was fairly simple. He wanted to do something that gave back to the Long Island Blues, a specialneeds hockey team with which he has volunteered for just over a year. The leadership class seeks to create what the name implies — young leaders in the community, who work with fellow students and school programs to create a difference. Students can enroll in the class as sophomores, if they’re recommended to take it by their ninth-grade social studContinued on page 14
Putting faith over fear: New book aims to inspire women By JoRDAN VAlloNE jvallone@liherald.com
Joanne Ameruoso understands the fear that comes with a breast cancer diagnosis. As she has watched several family members succumb to the disease, she has seen firsthand what happens when someone gives up hope. In an effort to change the public perception of breast cancer, Ameruoso began journaling, before realizing that she had enough thoughts and ideas to write a book detailing her own journey. In her newly published memoir, “Faith Over Fear: How my
mom’s fear of breast cancer became my fight,” Ameruoso sought to tell an educating and inspiring story about determination and faith, to help women like her overcome the fear associated with cancer. The book was released in November, and her hope is to get her name and story out there, and eventually create enough momentum to touch the lives of many people.
Her story
Ameruoso, 54, was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Valley Stream before settling in Merrick. She told the Herald that several cancers ran on both sides of her family, the most promi-
nent being breast cancer — despite the fact that the BRCA genes, which put women at a much higher risk for developing disease, do not run in her family. Joanne’s mother, MaryJean, died of breast cancer nine years ago, at 73. Reflecting on her loss, Joanne realized that much of her own health mimicked her mother’s. “I literally followed my mom’s genetic footprints,” she said. “My mom had endometriosis — I had endometriosis. My mom had four miscarriages — I had four miscarriages. My mom had a hysterectomy at 31 — I had a hysterectomy at 32.” Ameruoso opted to undergo a
preventive double mastectomy at 48 — and learned that she had Lynch syndrome, an inherited genetic disorder that puts those who have it at risk for several cancers, including stomach, colon, liver, brain, skin and endometrial cancer. “When you look into the factors of the DNA,” she said, “you dig deep, and you find answers.”
While recovering from her mastectomy, and dealing with lingering depression and anger associated with her mother’s death, Ameruoso’s health spiraled downward in other ways. “Through all my surgeries, there was this deep depression, and I gained weight, and I was so unhealthy,” she recounted. “My Continued on page 2