________ Franklin square/elmont _______
HERALD Time to fall back
Elmont’s strong season finale
Students learn all about apples
Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday
Remember to set your clocks back, and change your smoke and CO detector batteries
Page 6 Vol. 25 No. 45
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NoVEMBER 2 - 8, 2023
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Pizzerias help raise funds for bus tragedy By NIColE WAGNER nwagner@liherald.com
Keith Rossein/ Herald
Bingo, raising money, oh my! Theresa Faughnan of Levittown, Greg Faughnan of Levittown, and Jean Cunningham of Farmingdale flew in from the Land of Oz to help raise money for a Rescuing Families project at Franklin Square Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2718 on Oct. 27. More photos, story, Page 10.
Elmont valedictorian Yusef Lateef publishes book on ‘Medical Mayhem’ By NIColE WAGNER nwagner@liherald.com
Yusef Lateef, Class of 2024 Elmont Memorial High School valedictorian, recently added the publication of a new book to his long list of impressive accomplishments. In August, Lateef self-published “Medical Mayhem: Stories from the Medical Field,” which is available on Amazon Kindle for 99 cents. “I was kind of thinking, ‘What’s something good that I could do for my own self to get more exposure to fields of medicine?’” Lateef said. “Because, I’ve always known I’ve wanted to be a doctor since I was a kid — but, you know, some-
times you question it.” He asked himself this question throughout middle school and early in high school. Around the ninth grade, he came up with the idea about retelling interesting stories from the medical field. He then worked on his book over the course of the next four years, collecting 125 stories from doctors’ offices. He also searched online public forums to find stories from students, medical professionals and patients to gain a better understanding of their experiences. The research spanned the globe, with experiences from all 50 states, as well as from 33 countries. Before each Continued on page 5
On Sept. 21, Anthony Laurino dropped his son Francesco Laurino off at Far mingdale High School for a trip to a band camp in Pennsylvania. While his son was not on the bus that crashed later that day — one that resulted in the death of 43-year-old Farmingdale High School band director Gina Pellettiere and 77-year-old retired social studies teacher Beatrice Ferarri— Laurino remains deeply touched by the tragedy as a member of the Farmingdale community. As owner of Phil’s Pizzeria in Syosset, Laurino thought there must be something he could do to help the families of those who were affected by the tragedy. He got together with Alyssa Guidice of LI Dine and Jim Serpico, owner of Side Hustle Bread, to create a fundraiser to help these families out. Originally, the fundraiser was a one-night-only plan set for Oct. 25 — but as more communities heard about the mission, more restaurants wanted t o g e t i nvo l ve d . L a u r i n o, Guidice and Serpico set out to
get 20 pizzerias involved with the fundraiser. By the end of October, more than 140 pizzerias across Nassau County and Suffolk County participated in the efforts to support families who have been affected by the tragedy. T he fundraiser spanned three days, from Oct. 25-27 allowing more businesses to get involved. For every pie purchased at a participating pizzeria or restaurant during the fundraiser, $5 of the proceeds will be distributed to families affected by the tragedy. The distribution for the fundraiser will be split across four sectors, according to Guidice. Most of the money will go to the critically injured, other portions will go to the non-critically injured, the marching band and to the families of Pellettiere and Ferarri. Some band members lost their equipment on that bus, and Guidice said that the fundraiser hopes to be able to replace it. This was brought to Guidice’s attention by a mother of one of the students who was on the bus during the crash. The student was not Continued on page 2