How one Kennedy High junior wants to ‘Stop the Bleed’

Sydney Brewer has a mission to keep schools safe

By JoRDAN VAlloNE jvallone@liherald.com

Even as a child, Sydney Brewer realized that the threat of a tragedy taking place in a school could become a reality for anyone. Now just a few days shy of turning 17, she’s the same age as the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting survivors.

She recalls seeing the news about the horrific event that claimed 26 lives in Newtown, Connecticut, when she was in first grade.

Now a junior at John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore, Brewer, of Merrick, wants to make sure that students, teachers and administrators are prepared for a worst-case scenario situation.

Her fundraiser to purchase Stop the Bleed kits will do just that.

At Kennedy, Brewer is enrolled in the leadership program. Students who are part of the program begin taking leadership classes as sophomores, and they are followed by two more classes in their junior and senior years.

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On the heels of a 111-day long educational fundraiser that officially concluded in early January, project participants happily point out that their project did just that. Thanks to a collaborative effort involving every school in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District, the Hope Project raised over $3,800 for the nonprofit Hope for Haiti. Those who took part, club members said, came out of the experience with a deeper understanding of Haitian culture and values.

Project beginnings

Nickolas Mascary, a junior and a club officer, came up with the idea for the project last summer, and brought it to the rest of the club. Mascary is of Haitian descent, and having traveled to the country several times when he was younger, he was inspired to help its people, who have been severely tested by years of natural disasters and political unrest.

“I saw how resilient the country is,” Mascary, 16, told the Herald in October, “because they bounced back from these situations, and they still manage to have a really cool, amazing culture.”

Initial fundraising efforts began quickly, he explained, with several events in September and October. In November, the Equity Club visited Merrick Avenue Middle School, where they discussed the project and, with a stranded-on-a-desertisland exercise, helped students

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