Saw Mill Road kindergarten parents feed frontline workers

As elementary schools switched to remote learning amid the coronavirus shutdown, some traditions, such as classroom parties, were also lost to the shuffle. At Saw Mill Road School in North Bellmore, the parents of Mary Lou Langdon's kindergarten class were charged with collecting donations to fund those beloved parties, and since they had some money left over, they decided to put it to good use.

"We were thinking of what we could do when another mom saw the Bellmore-Merrick Helping our Heroes group on Facebook," said class parent Kelly Medici. "We loved that they [patronize] local restaurants to feed people while putting money back into our community, so I sent an email to other parents to try and connect with health care or essential workers, and that's when we heard from Liz."

Elizabeth "Liz" McEntee, is the emergency room nurse manager at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens. She is also a North Bellmore mother of four. Her oldest, Sean, 6, is a student in Langdon's class. 

"Kelly told me they were looking to use the money from the class parties to donate a meal to a local hospital, which I thought was a great idea," McEntee said. "We scheduled a day and time for them to drop by, and they surprised us with lunch."

Medici enlisted the sandwich-makers at Souper Fry in North Merrick to deliver trays full of food to LIJ for McEntee and her staff. The donation was enough to feed all the workers on the day shift as well as the night shift — a total of 75 people, McEntee said. 

Additionally, each of Langdon's 20 students wrote thank-you cards addressed to the health care workers, which they held up while posing for a picture.  "My son [Ryan] was looking for his name" in the photo, Medici said. "He felt proud to be a part of that."

McEntee commended her fellow parents for lending a hand, noting that working at a hospital as a mother during the Covid-19 pandemic has come with its fair share of hardships.

"It's a very touching thing for me," she said. "The fact that the class parents did this just speaks to what an amazing group of people we have in this school. I couldn't be more grateful to live in this community and to have my kids at Saw Mill."