______________ VALLEY STREAM _____________
HERALD April 4, 2024
Vol. 35 No. 15
Hofstra softball goes for the top
Rabbi travels to Israel
Page 6
Page 10
APRIl 4 - 10, 2024
$1.00
Advocates join forces to fight ‘period poverty’ This year, Lissa Nelson, director of patient and customer experience at Long Island Across communities, “peri- Jewish Valley Stream Hospital od poverty” persists as a press- is partnering with new allies: ing concern, as many women Bonnie Sperry, Administrator struggle to access essential for the National Council of J e w i s h Wo m e n menstrual products Peninsula Section; due to prohibitive and Helena Little, costs and other barPresident of the riers. Nassau Alumni This dilemma Chapter of Delta leaves many womSigma Theta Sororen’s menstr ual ity Inc. They are needs unattended. the driving forces Research estimates behind the latest that around 11 milperiod poverty inilion women in the tiative. U.S. struggle with “We do public some form of periservice and food od poverty. pantries for famiInaccessibility lies that are experito period products lISSA NElSoN encing food insecucan bring life to a Director, patient and rity and it was not screeching halt for customer experience, many women and Long Island Jewish V.S. lost on us that the majority of people girls, leading to diswho come to get ruptions in their daily lives, such as missing food to feed their families are women,” Nelson said. “So if school or work. Last year, through the Wom- you are struggling to get food en’s Empowerment BERG pro- and to keep food on the table, gram, Long Island Jewish Val- you’re struggling also to buy ley Stream Hospital donated these expensive feminine prodclose to 500 menstrual products ucts that take care of themfor women at the Memorial selves. “And what happens many Presbyterian Church food pantry in Roosevelt. Continued on page 14
By ANGElINA ZINGARIEllo
azingariello@liherald.com
W
Virginia Maloney/Herald
Chomp goes the bunny shark Emilia Puran, 6, wearing her all-pink Easter outfit at the village’s Easter Goodie Bag Give Away last Saturday, dancing to ‘Baby Shark.’
VSCHSD Board of Education has three new student liaisons By JUAN lASSo jlasso@liherald.com
This year, the role of student liaison to the Valley Stream Central High School Board of Education has fallen on not one, but three Valley Stream high school seniors. The new liaisons are Gunand Thind, Mary Youssef, and Ashley-Ann Francis, from Valley Stream North, Central, and South, respectively. Each one is what one would expect from a highachieving student: top of the academic heap in their grade, quintessential go-getters in their extracurricular activities, and accustomed to striving and being busy. College-bound and leadership-driven, they
have been spoken highly of by their teachers and peers, enough to be expressly handpicked by their school principals for the role. When considering whether to say ‘yes’ to the position, amid an already packed schedule of obligations, Thind, president of North’s ecology club and National Honor Society, realized that the position was “a way I could give back to my school district before I leave away for college, which has given me so much these past six years.”
Handpicked leaders, historic trio The all-female trio also represents something of a historic first for the district. The position of student liaison, created in 2018 and originally Continued on page 11
hat happens many times is women put themselves last, the needs of the family first.