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Vol. 69 No. 15
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APRIl 8 - 14, 2021
TBT garden gets TLC from Eagle Scout candidate
No April showers — just flowers Maria Serpico, her daughter, Alexandra Maresca, and their Schnauzer mix, Anna, stopped to grab some plants at the Seaford Fire Department’s Hook, Ladder and Engine Company No. 1 Easter Plant Sale last Saturday. Story, more photos, Page 20.
By JENNIFER CoRR jcorr@liherald.com
Jennifer Corr/Herald
David DeRienzo, a senior at General Douglas MacArthur High School in Levittown, has a busy schedule, between working as a barista at a Starbucks in Seaford and leading his school’s Key Club as president. Adding to his list of to-do’s, the Eagle Scout candidate, a member of Troop 330, is taking on an extensive project in the garden at Temple B’nai Torah in Wantagh. DeRienzo, 17, who lives in Levittown, has been a Boy Scout for as long as he can remember, having joined the Cub Scouts in second grade. Now he is earning his Eagle rank at the temple
where he had his bar mitzvah. Being a scout, he said, “has definitely helped improved my maturity a lot, my independence. It was a place where I could be with my friends, expand on my own skills and my own knowledge and also help other people and do what I needed while also improving myself.” The temple’s Social Action/ S o c i a l Ju s t i c e C o m m i t t e e launched what it calls the Giving Garden last May in an abandoned playground that has belonged to the temple for decades. All of the produce grown there is donated to local nonprofits, such as Island Harvest Food Bank, Hempstead’s Continued on page 3
Pop-up vaccination site comes to Seaford School District By BRIAN StIEGlItZ bstieglitz@liherald.com
About 140 employees of the Seaford School District were able to get the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccination one recent Friday at a pop-up site set up by Walgreens at the Seaford Manor School. Administrators, teachers, clerical workers, custodians, teachers’ aides and others got the one-dose inoculation, thanks to Noelle Bloom, a Seaford parent and a pharmacist at Walgreens who coordinated the event. Early last month, the district sent a survey to employees to see
who still needed vaccinations and set up appointments for everyone who expressed an interest. Then a team from Walgreens set up the site in the school’s backyard and vaccinated employees between 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. “I had made attempts prior to getting the vaccination, but there wasn’t really anything opening up close to me,” said Hope Morreale, 51, of Seaford, a teacher’s aide at Manor. Morreale said that her anxiety was mounting because she didn’t know when she would be able to get inoculated, but then she heard about the district program. “The process could not
have been easier,” she said. “I felt really blessed to get vaccinated right in the school district where I work — especially when I hear about how far some people have had to travel to get to their appointment.” “It worked out great,” said Assistant Superintendent John Striffolino. “It was a one-shot deal, and people were very happy about it. Some of them were having such a hard time getting vaccination appointments, so everybody was very appreciative. I think [Bloom] really contributed a lot to the district.” Striffolino added that he enjoyed seeing so many employees gathered in one place, which
hasn’t been able to happen under social distancing requirements. “It was really great to see everybody,” he said. Morreale said she experienced slight chills and a low fever the following day, but felt fine on Sunday, and was optimistic about the future. “The first thing that came to mind was spending time with
my mother-in-law,” she said. Ann Morreale, 84, of Kings Park, has underlying health conditions and has been isolated from her family throughout the pandemic. Hope said she looked forward to seeing Ann without having six feet of space between them. She also said she was looking Continued on page 3