HOLIDAY MAGIC
_________________ WANTAGH ________________
Dining Gi f t and
guide
Ideas to INSPIRE
HERALD Holiday Magic Dining and Gift Guide
Inside
Vol. 70 No. 48
Wantagh’s student inventors
Middle school’s bustling clubs
Page 4
Page 9
NoVEMBER 24 - 30, 2022
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$1.00
Star Boxing comes to town Mulcahy’s hosts fight night event: ‘Shore Wars’ By MICHAEl MAlASZCZYK mmalaszczyk@liherald.com
Y Tim Baker/Herald
RYAN o’RouRKE, lEft, from Ireland, made his American boxing debut against Andreas Maier, of Germany, last Thursday at Mulcahy’s.
ou don’t have to dish out wads of cash for a late-night pay-per-view event to see an exciting night of boxing — the WantaghSeaford area may have just become a hot spot for exciting bouts. Star Boxing hosted Shore Wars last week at Mulcahy’s Pub and Concert Hall — an evening of fights featuring several boxers from Long Island. The White Plains-based company has promoted boxers such as Antonio Tarver, a former light heavyweight champion known for knocking out Roy Jones Jr. and for starring in the movie “Rocky Balboa.” Chris Algieri, a former world champion who fought Manny Pacquiao; and more recently Joe Smith Jr., a former light heavyweight champion who ended the legendary career of Bernard HopContinued on page 3
‘Operation Christmas Child’ returns to Wantagh High By MICHAEl MAlASZCZYK mmalaszczyk@liherald.com
Kayla Spisto, a sophomore at Wantagh High School, is doing her part to spread some holiday cheer to children of all ages. Kayla, who is on the high school’s cheerleading team, took the initiative in the team’s annual toy drive this year. Every year, the Wantagh cheer team works with Samaritan’s Purse’s Operation Christmas Child to fill up shoeboxes with toys, as well as essential items, to be shipped to children all around the world. The cheer team usually produces between 12 and 18 boxes. Samaritan’s Purse is a Chris-
tian humanitarian aid organization founded in 1970 and based in North Carolina. Operation Christmas Child started in 1990 and has since donated millions of toy-filled shoeboxes to children. “Usually each cheerleader just gets boxes,” Kayla said. “But this year, my grandma, who does it in Florida, had a bunch of extra boxes, and she sent them to us. I distributed it to the cheer team for the middle school and high school.” Samaritan’s Purse usually works through churches, and Kayla had hooked up with the organization through her church prior to working with the cheer
team. “They give us a list of things to include,” Rose Spisto, Kayla’s mother, said. “Mostly they want toys, but you’re advised to put things in like toothbrushes and hair brushes as well — shampoos, too. These are the things that we tend to take for granted, but they’re part of daily living and are things that people need.” Rose Spisto has always been involved with these kinds of drives at her church, and her charitable spirit has spread to her daughter. Kayla noticed that no one was really too enthusiastic about the cheer team’s drive and felt that it could be bigger, so she took the initiative on it.
“I asked around the entire school,” Kayla said. “Some people took five shoeboxes each. And then they’d get family members or friends involved. The holiday joy really spreads.” A large part of the sophomore’s motivation is being grateful growing up in Wantagh. “Every kid deserves that feeling on Christmas morning,”
Kayla added. “That feeling of seeing presents under the tree.” Wantagh’s contribution to Operation Christmas Child topped off at around 100 boxes this year, which is way more than the usual amount raised by the cheer team alone. Both Kayla and her mother said they hope that they have Continued on page 2