Oceanside H.S. grad hosts L.I. hygiene drive

Oceanside High School graduate Eric Ascher is taking his community-minded spirit to college. Now in his third year at Stony Brook University, Ascher is spearheading a drive to collect personal hygiene products to distribute to local shelters and charities and send abroad to help with relief efforts in Haiti.

Ascher said he came up with the idea for the drive when he was back home for the holidays this past December. He was shopping with his mother in Waldbaum's and overheard a conversation between a mother and her young daughter, who was asking for Dora the Explorer band-aids. The girl's mother refused, and Ascher said it appeared as though the band-aids were a luxury the family could not afford. He was struck by the encounter, and began researching local charitable organizations that might be able to help.

Ascher first spoke with a representative from United Way, who suggested a “Go local, go global” campaign, and referred him to the Hauppauge-based charity Long Island Cares. Long Island Cares helps collect and distribute food and other essential supplies to local charities, shelters and other community organizations in need. Ascher, a resident assistant at Stony Brook, drafted letters to the organization and to college officials to get the project going. By Jan. 25, he was distributing flyers on campus.

Other students got involved in the project too. Currently, all five dormitory buildings in Ascher's quad are participating, working to collect donations of personal hygiene products like toothpaste, soap, shampoo, band-aids, and deodorant — as Ascher puts it, “the basic needs that many people take for granted,” Half of the goods will be collected and brought to Long Island Cares for sorting and shipment in April. The other half will be sent by the university to an orphanage in Haiti.