Wantagh
CoMMuNITy uPDATE Infections as of Dec. 7
1,144
Infections as of Nov. 30 963
HERALD Citizen
last Hope gets new flowerbed
Full STEAM ahead in Wantagh
Hanukkah message from Beth Tikvah
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DECEMBER 10 - 16, 2020
Vol. 68 No. 50
Take what you need, whenever Local mom starts ‘Sharing Table’ and urges neighbors to take part ing table outside her house on Narragansett on Nov. 22. Her goal wasn’t overly specific, she If you have driven, biked or said. She just wanted to take walked down Narragansett Ave- advantage of the community’s nue in Seaford in the proclivity to give by p a s t t wo we e k s, creating a place to chances are you’ve do so without any come across the pressure. The table Sharing Table — a remains outside, day small, tidy operation and night, for comwhere people can munity members to either give, or take, add to — or to take whatever they need. advantage of when Mary Kate needed. Tischler, of Seaford, “It seemed like a MARy KATE is the creator of the very effective and goodwill exchange TISCHlER easy way to help peotable, and serves as Sharing Table ple locally,” Tischler, resident host. After 46, said on Monday. creator seeing a similar idea “That Sunday, I just in a ma g azine, woke up and my Tischler bought the initial lot of daughter and I had no plans. I canned goods, other non-perish- said, ‘Let’s do this today.’ I didn’t able food items and toiletries. know if it would actually work.” She put them on a standard sixT he initial supply that foot by three-and-a-half-foot foldContinued on page 4
By J.D. FREDA
jfreda@liherald.com
T
he table regenerates itself. I leave it on its own.
Courtesy Jodi Sheintul
MATTHEW SHEINTul, RIgHT, and Emily Fagan have made the process of donating toys to the John Theissen Children’s Foundation easier, and have collected over 200 since mid-October.
Teens keen to fulfill dreams
Charitable duo take matters into own hands By J.D. FREDA jfreda@liherald.com
Matthew Sheintul and Emily Fagan, seniors at Seaford High School, decided in mid-October that they wanted to help their community. They saw an opportunity to give back, by helping the John Theissen Children’s Foundation with its annual Holiday Toy & Fund Drive. Community members who take part usually either donate a few toys to the charity or spend
time in the foundation’s Wantagh headquarters, helping to unbox incoming gifts and organize them. Sheintul and Fagan took it o n e s t e p f u r t h e r. T h e y reached out to members of their neighborhood and school community, using social media, and created an Amazon “wish list” link featuring holiday toys and other items. Others have also added items since October. The goal was to collect as many gifts as possible for families that are
struggling this winter, and the teens’ plan was to make the process as easy, accessible and user-friendly as possible, even for people who may not be as technologically savvy. “One of the main things that popped in my mind when thinking about doing this was that this year has been hard on a lot of people,” Sheintul said. “None of these things are fair, and anyone in the household losing a job can Continued on page 5
Our COvid-19 traCker With the Covid-19 test positivity rate rising across the country, the Herald is adding a weekly coronavirus tracker to the upper-left corner of our front page to help you gauge what’s happening in your area from week to week. the number is an aggregate of the communities that this newspaper covers. data is obtained from the nassau County Covid-19 dashboard, which provides the total number of cases reported in an area since the start of the pandemic, and is updated regularly.