‘For That Time’ helps women in poverty across Long Island Organization provides basic necessities to those in need

By JoRDAN VAlloNE jvallone@liherald.com

When Ryann Jordan, a senior at Calhoun High School in Merrick, learned that there are countless women who can’t afford or don’t have access to basic necessities, like feminine hygiene products, she quickly sprang into action.

Realizing that something needed to be done, Jordan, 18, founded the organization, “For That Time,” to address these needs and make a difference in her local community.

Her sister, Lindsay, a student at Cornell University, told her that many women living in poverty across the U.S. struggle to find not only food and other items from pan - tries, but also hygiene products.

“In one of her classes, she told me that they talked about period poverty, and I hadn’t really heard about it before,” Jordan said. “I looked more into it and noticed that it was like a really big problem in the world, and it wasn’t really being shared, to my knowl -

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Bellmore-Merrick wrestlers learn basics in youth program Bulldogs offer alternative to team sports

By JoRDAN VAlloNE jvallone@liherald.com

Traditional team sports may not be for every young athlete, and the Bellmore-Merrick Bulldogs youth wrestling organization understands that. Its administrators and coaches say that being part of the Bulldogs promotes strength and character — on and off the mat — and prepares both male and female wrestlers for a future in the sport.

Olivia Marine, a self-described wrestling mom, wife and daughter, runs the program, and has been involved in the sport for years. Her children are older and are not part of the Bulldogs, and she said she leads the program out of pure love for wrestling.

Years back, Marine said, there was a different youth wrestling group in Bellmore-Merrick, the Tornadoes, but it folded. With the community left program-less, Marine, who lives in Merrick, said that two National Wrestling Hall of Fame coaches

— John Hamilton and Ray Adam, who both have ties to Bellmore-Merrick — approached her and asked her to start another one.

Six years ago, the Bulldogs were founded as a charter wrestling program under the auspices of the Long Island Wrestling Association. It has become a feeder program for wrestling in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District, and what young Bulldogs learn, Marine said, prepares them for matches in middle school and high school.

Under her directorship, the program has two head coaches, Steve Romano and Jason Keshinova. Romano focuses primarily on younger wrestlers, in first through third grades, and Keshinova coaches the older ones, fourth- through sixth-graders.

“The younger group will learn basic techniques,” Marine explained. “They learn the rules of wrestling. They learn the commitment that it takes to be a

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