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Nearly a dozen feed the poor in Queens
Craig Papach, Kennedy High School's athletic coordinator and a 19-year phys. ed. teacher, had long heard the stories of poverty and loneliness, and he wanted to help.
So, on Thanksgiving morning, he and his family piled into their car and made the trek from their suburban home in a quiet Wantagh neighborhood to a tiny church on Beach 94th Street in Queens. They went to lend their hands and, equally important, their ears to a day-long effort to aid the homeless.
Papach was one of 10 Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District teachers who joined roughly 100 volunteers from Rock and Wrap It Up, a Five Towns-based nonprofit group founded by Syd Mandelbaum, to feed hundreds of impoverished street denizens, some of whom had not eaten for days.
Many came with ragged clothes and unkempt hair, not having showered for who knows how long. Others, fewer in number, were better dressed but nevertheless hungry, having come from poverty-stricken city housing projects nearby.
The day was, Papach said, an eye-opening experience for his three young children, Michael, Kristen and Matthew, who had never seen poverty up close. He and his wife, JoAnn, a former Kennedy English teacher, brought the children because, Craig said, they "needed a dose of reality."
"The best part was seeing my kids' reactions," Papach said. At first, "they were nervous, the way kids can be." But they quickly got to work serving donated Thanksgiving meals, with turkey and all the trimmings. Papach also brought his two nieces, both Mepham High School graduates, and they turned out to be "great talkers," chatting freely with the patrons. Many who came for a meal just wanted someone to talk to, Papach said.
"For my entire family," he said, "it was more than we thought it would be."
Other Bellmore-Merrick teachers had similarly positive reactions. Rich Wilen, Merrick Avenue Middle School's athletic coordinator and a seventh-grade science teacher, said, "It's humbling because you see many people who need the food, but also need the company."
