______________ VALLEY STREAM _____________
your HEALTH body / mind / fitness
and April 25, 2024
HERALD
with a focus on:
Senior Healthy Living
VOL. 35 NO. 18
Pay bump for pre-K staff?
Tax credit for journalists
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Central student is a National Merit finalist By JUAN LASSO jlasso@liherald.com
To be named a National Merit Scholar is to enter a rarefied club of students who, just to be considered worthy, must test in the top one percent of test-takers for the PSAT/ National Merit Scholarship QualiOne test to fying Test. rule them all There’s more, of National Merit course. Students Scholar can dramust also be acamatically elevate a demically accomstudent’s academic p l i s h e d ove r a l l , profile in the eyes write persuasively of top college about themselves, recruiters. But and demonstrate eve n t h o s e wh o involvement and d o n’ t c i n c h t h e leadership in extraf i n a l p r i z e, a r e curricular activioften recipients of ties. generous scholarLast November, AmY LA ship packages and C e n t r a l H i g h PerSONerie highly sought-after S ch o o l ’s, S a a j e d Counselor, by a swath of colYaseen, a transgen- Central High School leges and universider man, advanced ties. as a semi-finalist, Despite recent inroads by joining 16,000 high achievers nationwide instantly putting colleges to diminish the bearhim in the running for the title ing that standardized testing of National Merit Finalist. Yas- has on an applicant’s attractiveeen was within sight of achiev- ness, the National Merit Scholar competition is still, at its ing the PSAT’s perfect score of core, a contest for the best test1520. His score was 1470. Now, Yaseen climbed a rung Continued on page 20
Y
Keith Rossein/Herald
disabled american Veterans post 145 Commander James Brown accepts a donation from Wheeler avenue second-grader emme taveras at the Valley Stream Chamber of Commerce toiletry drive on april 19.
Chamber leads toiletry drive for local homeless veterans By JUAN LASSO jlasso@liherald.com
For military service members, transitioning back to civilian life can be hard. Finding stable housing can make that return even harder. Despite a steep national decline in veteran homelessness between 2010 and 2022, veterans are still at a comparatively greater risk than non-veterans of turning up on the streets or staying in shelters, experts note. Those same homeless veterans tend to live in the shadow of poverty, according to local veteran advocates, where securing basic items like unused toiletries is a constant challenge. “They served our country and they don’t have soap,” said Valley Stream Chamber of
Commerce member Lauri LoQuerico. “How freaking sad.” LoQuerico mobilized the Valley Stream Chamber of Commerce — working in concert with multiple village and veteran organizations — to host a roughly month-long toiletry drive, which started on April 8. Though word of the drive has been circulating for days now, during which time Wheeler families, alongside others in participating schools have been in the thick of collecting items, last Friday served as the formal kickoff event. On a brisk sunny afternoon, a crowd of Wheeler Elementary School students with their building principal, Ruth Peets-Butcher in tow, converged on the front steps of the Continued on page 4
higher in the competition as a National Merit Finalist. It’s a distinction bestowed on only 15,000 students in the country, placing him within arms reach of being named a National Merit Scholarship winner. The scholars represent roughly half of the finalists and will take home $2,500.
aseen is one of the most humble students here, and effortlessly blew us away with his academic success.