Skip to main content

Bellmore Herald 01-26-2023

Page 1

_________________ bellmore ________________

HERALD

January 26, 2023

Celebrations GETTING ready for your DAY

Getting ready for your special day

Inside

VoL. 26 No. 5

New LIPA plan may cut costs

MLK remembered in schools

Page 18

Page 20 $1.00 $1.00

JANUARY 26 - FEBRUARY 1, 2023

Another year of Regeneron scholars at Kennedy High By JoRDAN VALLoNE jvallone@liherald.com

Jordan Vallone/Herald

LUKE FELDMAN, LEFt, and Tyler Bissoondial were named semifinalists in the 2023 Society for Science & Public Science Talent Search competition, sponsored by the pharmaceutical company Regeneron.

Two seniors at John F. Kennedy High School, in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District, have been named semifinalists in the 2023 Society for Science & Public Science Talent Search competition, sponsored by the phar maceutical company Regeneron. The talent search is among the most prestigious science competitions in the U.S. Tyler Bissoondial and Luke Feldman both dedicated hundreds of hours to their projects, while enrolled in Kennedy’s Advanced Science Research program under the leadership of teacher Continued on page 4

Teens transform shirts into toys for local animal shelters By JoRDAN VALLoNE jvallone@liherald.com

Local animal shelters can always use the public’s help — whether it’s through volunteering or donating supplies. Teens Ryan Levinter and Charlie Matos recognized that need, and the two dog lovers started Tees to Toys, an organization that transforms old T-shirts into rope toys, to be donated to local shelters. “We saw there were a lot of lockdowns in the world in 2020 and 2021, and there still are,” Ryan said. “There were just all these animals going into the shelters when people started going back to work. (Shelters)

weren’t able to give every single dog a toy, so we decided, why not try and do something?” Last weekend, Ryan, 15 of Merrick, and Charlie, 14, of Bellmore, hosted their first workshop at the Merrick Library. Using space in the community room of the library, the workshop was open to fellow teens to volunteer for an hour to learn how to make the toys. In turn, they received credit for 1½ hours of community service. A sheet handed out at the workshop detailed the process: After the shirt was cut into several long, thin sections, they were shaped into four braids.

The braids were then weaved together using the box method, a type of knot most common in lanyards, to create a tight, compact rope toy. Depending on the size of the shirt and the thickness of the braids, there were toys of all different shapes and sizes, for all ages and breeds of dogs. Ryan’s mother, Dory Levinter, explained that her son had read a news article about shelters being crowded beyond their capacity. “During Covid, a lot of people got animals, but now that they’re back to their normal life, they can’t care for these dogs and are dumping them,” Dory

said. “Since we cannot adopt hundreds of animals, Ryan thought the next best thing is to help the shelters as much as possible.”

Coordinating with Last Hope The boys selected Last Hope Animal Rescue, in Wantagh, to be one of the first local shelters to work with because of its prox-

imity to Bellmore and Merrick. Charlie said that his family has made donations to Last Hope over the years. JoAnne Anderson, the shelter’s outreach coordinator, said that people returning dogs to shelters post-Covid wasn’t something that rescue workers had seen. “If they’re coming back, Continued on page 5


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Bellmore Herald 01-26-2023 by Richner Communications, Inc - Issuu