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The Junior High School Community Service Club made Valentine’s Day cards for residents of the East Neck Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in West Babylon. Members of the club will also make purple pins for “PS I Love You Day” on Feb. 4.

Hempstead, NY – Throughout the fall semester Pride student-athletes were active in and around the Hofstra community, taking part in 25 projects. In all, Hofstra student-athletes dedicated more than 2,100 hours or service to others during the fall semester.

Highlighted projects included the Long Island Children’s Museum Annual Ghostly Gala, which had more than 30 student-athletes volunteer in a variety of areas at an event that entertains and educates children during Halloween. Other community service projects our student-athletes participated in included running sports clinics for local youth groups, the Colonial Athletic Association Blood Drive Challenge, the annual women’s lacrosse HEADstrong fundraiser and several visits to local shelters and nursing homes. The Department of Athletics is very proud of the outstanding work of our student-athletes, and would like to send a special thank you to all of the student-athletes and coaches who dedicated their time and efforts to serve others this past semester.

Some of the projects taken part in by Hofstra’s student-athletes included:

Rolling Thunder
Each weekend throughout the semester, the Pride men’s and women’s cross country teams spent time with Rolling Thunder, an organization that encourages children and young adults with special needs to embrace running, and uses the sport to create friendships and memories. Student-athletes took runners through warm-ups as well as running workouts, acting as positive role models for all participants throughout the semester. Both teams will continue to work with the Rolling Thunder organization throughout the spring semester.

Holiday Shoe Box Event
Throughout the month of December, each of Hofstra’s 17 athletic teams gathered items for a group of very special children at Winthrop Hospital. Those items were used to fill shoeboxes with stuffed animals, books, toys and arts and crafts and other items. All of the boxes were wrapped and donated to the Child Life Program to be distributed to children who would be spending the holidays in the hospital. Student-athletes also included very special notes in each box, wishing them well from all of the teams at Hofstra University.

Shake-A-Rake
This annual event brought together more than 200 student-athletes and 150 students at Hofstra University. Students spent a Saturday morning visiting local homes and senior centers, helping to clear leaves and debris from properties. This year saw the highest number of participants in the history of the six-year old event.

Center for Science Teaching & Learning; Spooky Fest
More than 60 student-athletes from men’s soccer, women’s tennis, field hockey, baseball and wrestling volunteered at this Halloween event in Rockville Centre. Volunteers dressed up as zombies, assisted with face painting, animal exhibits and arts and crafts tables to take children through a weeklong Halloween celebration.

Breast Cancer Walk
Student-athletes from Hofstra’s wrestling team took part in an annual 5k walk held at Jones Beach State Park. Team members helped raise funds for cancer research, and joined with thousands of participants to help support those battling breast cancer.

Long Island Children’s Museum
Team members from men’s and women’s tennis, women’s basketball and baseball assisted with the Long Island Children’s Museum Annual Ghostly Gala, a Halloween event for children. The evening had a variety of activities, including a spooky room, arts and crafts, as well as educational sessions for children of all ages.

Tunnel To Towers Run/Walk
The men’s and women’s Lacrosse teams and coaching staffs took a break from their fall season practices to participate in the Firefighter Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Run/Walk in lower Manhattan. The 3.1-mile Tunnel to Towers Run/Walk honors the legacy of love given by Siller by paying tribute to his heroic life and death, his 342 FDNY brothers, and all those lost on 9/11. When his truck was prohibited from entering the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, Siller raced on foot, through the Tunnel, with his gear strapped to his back. The Tunnel to Towers Run retraces Stephen’s footsteps on that fateful day. In running along his path, the Run/Walk honors the memory of all the firefighters, police, and EMS workers who performed their duty that day.

For the fifth consecutive year, the Thomas J. Lahey Elementary School physical education department in the Harborfields Central School District hosted its Fifth-Grade Charity Volleyball Tournament with all proceeds this year benefiting a family in the district who has a child battling cancer.

To register for the tournament, each of the 190 fifth-grade students paid a nominal fee of $5 that allowed them to participate in several volleyball matches with their fellow classmates. To help supplement the funds collected, the Tunney family, a family in the district, generously matched each child’s registration fee.

Through gracious contributions from the TJL physical education department, faculty and community members, a raffle was held, which allowed the entire school to contribute to this special cause. Some of the prizes included sport equipment packages, gift cards for Dunkin Donuts, GameStop, Besito Mexican Restaurant and Old Fields Restaurant, and students entered for a chance to win a pizza and bagel party for their class.

Through the collaborative efforts of the school community and the Tunney family donation as well as raffle tickets and concession stand sales, TJL School raised nearly $6,000 to help the Wrede family defray medical costs for their child. At the end of January, Mrs. Kerri Wrede met some of the students who participated in the tournament and thanked them personally for all their efforts.

Photo Caption: Thomas J. Lahey fifth-grade Charity Volleyball captains, Principal Margy Greene, Assistant Principal Mary Williams, members of the TJL physical education department, the Tunney family and Kerri Wrede (holding the T-shirt).

Photo courtesy of the Harborfields Central School District

Farmingdale, N.Y. – On Thursday, January 21st, the Farmingdale State men’s basketball team offered a basketball clinic in the Levittown School District. At the event, our players and coaches held two sessions for the 4th grade students at the East Broadway Elementary School, in collaboration with their physical education teacher, Diane Chapman.

The coaches ran drills with the students, as well as speaking with them about the importance of both sportsmanship and academics. The players coached the 100 students throughout the drills and gave them some pointers to help their game.

Rams head coach Brendan Twomey stated that “it was nice to see our guys giving back to the community. Our student-athletes enjoyed the event as much as the kids. We look forward to having another event like this in the future.”

Levittown faculty from MacArthur High School and Salk Middle School participated in a series of Sumo wrestling matches to benefit the John Theissen Children’s Foundation.

Under the direction of coach Michael Marrero, the participants donned immense Sumo wrestling gear to the delight of a packed crowd in the MacArthur High School gymnasium and wrestled their way to a $1,750 donation for sick and underprivileged children. The event coincided with the MacArthur High School wrestling team’s Senior

“I am happy to see that so many people came out for such a good cause,” Coach Marrero said. “We hope that the Senior Night Sumo Showdown will be an annual event that will continue to benefit the John Theissen Children’s Foundation. This was a good day for our community.”

The Sumo match participants were Salk Middle School Principal John Zampaglione versus MacArthur High School Principal Joe Sheehan; Salk teachers Bill Kind versus Caroline Kind; Coaches Brian Luball versus Chris Weggeland, MacArthur High School teachers David Levy versus Chris Bergersen; assistant
principals Patrick Mulligan versus Michael Scaduto; and MacArthur High School teacher Chris Leahy versus Dean Steve Fazzolari. MacArthur High School graduate, former New York State wrestling champion and Ultimate Fighting Championship wrestler Gian Villante, was the guest referee.

After the Sumo wrestling matches, the MacArthur High School wrestling team took to the mat and dominated the Westbury Dragons in their last league match before the post season. The graduating seniors honored during Senior Night were John Bachas, Travis Cooksey, Sal Deluca, Nick Goodelman, Jeremy Hughes,
Vincent Thron and Noah Weisberg.

Photo Captions:

A: Professional wrestler Gian Villante refereed a Sumo wrestling match between Salk Middle School Principal John Zampaglione and MacArthur High School Principal Joseph Sheehan during the Levittown School District’s first annual Senior Night Sumo Showdown to benefit the John Thiessen Children’s Foundation.

Photos courtesy of the Levittown School District