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Vol. 71 No. 32
august 3 - 9, 2023
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Wild Ones find fun ways to preserve trees across the town By JEssICa REN
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Jessica Ren/Herald
Wild Ones’ Long Island Chapter hosted its first ‘Walkie Talkie’ event in Freeport last month, so its members and the community could learn about their trees. Arborist Olivia Calandra, left, discussed the unique characteristics of a maple leaf.
Intern
he Long Island chapter of Wild Ones held its first “Walkie Talkie” event last month, in collaboration with the Stearns Park Civic Association of Freeport. While out on a walk with arborists in the Stearns Park neighborhood of Freeport, 25 participants learned about tree identification and tree care. Last September, Wild Ones, a nonprofit organization with a mission to promote environmentally sound landscaping practices and preserve biodiversity, held its first meeting at the Merrick Golf Course. Noting an increase in the number of trees being cut down, the group is hopeful that it can work with COnTInued On pAge 5
Nurse preparing to embark on second mission trip By JoRDaN ValloNE jvallone@liherald.com
If you ask Sophia Specht about ways in which you can help others, she’ll tell you it doesn’t have to do with money. Donating your time, simple products, and outside-the-box thinking can have an impact on others’ lives. A nurse at Huntington Hospital, Specht is preparing to embark on her second mission trip this year, having taken her first in May. While she understands that not everyone may have the luxury to take time off from work and pay to travel to where help is needed, donating
medical supplies and scrubs at home can make a huge difference abroad. Specht has always been committed to giving back when possible. Now living in Bellmore, she grew up in Wantagh, where she helped start a recycling club at Wantagh High School in the late 1980s. She has volunteered at local animal shelters, and was a paramedic at the Wantagh-Levittown Volunteer Ambulance Corps. “We live in such a disposable society,” Specht said. “I’m looking around my house right now, and I have these reusable shopping bags. My house has three people, and we probably have 30
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hat do you do with the extra things that you have in life? sophIa spECht nurse bags. You can bring them to a food pantry, and the pantry will pack food for their clients to bring home. It’s the simple things.” Specht’s trip to Kenya in May was inspiring, and opened her eyes to the ways in which other
countries approach everything from recycling to, of course, medicine. “I know it sounds a little hippy-ish, but in America there’s so much waste,” she said. “It’s about, what do you do with the extra things that you have in life? Are you recycling? Are you up-cycling and repurposing? Are you donating clothes? It’s
all these little things that I feel we’ve lost our way on, or we’ve never had our way.” Specht’s mission trips were not sponsored by the hospital; she volunteered for them, at her own expense. She traveled to Kenya with the group Kenya Relief, and will travel to the Dominican Republic later this COnTInued On pAge 10