Seaford spreads cheer to seniors

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The Seaford Public Library is spreading holiday cheer with its new program geared to help seniors in the area. Two weeks ago, around 60 Seaford teens, ages 11 and up, took part in a project to create and decorate cards for seniors at the Bristal Assisted Living Facility in neighboring Massapequa.

“It will make them feel loved and put a huge smile on their face,” Kristi Weiburg, 11, said about the cards.

With ornament stencils and every color glitter available, the young teens had fun making the seasonal cards and bonding with their fellow classmates.

“I think it benefits the community because it helps give back,” young adult librarian Jillian Pelliccia said. “It lets the kids see that there are people who are in need of some uplifting, especially during the holidays.”

After an overwhelming response to the program, Pelliccia created two separate sessions for the children to participate and collected more than enough cards for the 134 members living in the facility.

“I did a lot of volunteer work as a kid,” Pelliccia said. “It is just so beneficial for yourself and opens up your whole perspective on life.”

Many of the teens received one hour of community service to go towards their confirmation processes at both Maria Regina and St. William the Abbot churches in Seaford.

“The combination of them doing volunteer work and getting community service out of it is the niche to get them in,” Pelliccia added.

Although this is the first year Pelliccia has run the program, she said she hopes to make it an annual community service event to help both the facility and the teens. “Every community is different,” Pelliccia said. “Our programs are good but I wanted to do something that meant a lot more. I wanted to open up the scopes of their lives and see what else is out there.”

For parents, the event was both a local and constructive extracurricular activity for their children to do after school.“We do a lot of community work,” Rosemarie Vane-Priola, of Seaford, said. “It helps the children be good citizens and to show them how to care for others.“The only thing she is going to miss is being able to physically give the card to someone,” Priola said about her fifth-grader, Gigi. “But she enjoys the giving aspect.”

Most of the teens said they would return next year to participate in the program and bring their friends. “Some seniors are lonely and this is a good way to cheer them up!” Austin Mulder, 12, said about the event. “I would definitely bring my friends to help out next year.”

“I feel proud,” Pelliccia added. “Young adult is hard and I’m finally getting into the groove of it. Everything is trial and error and I’m glad to see that this worked out.”