Spreading kindness in the name of late South Side High School graduate Ryan O'Shea

Random acts of kindness were performed last week in the name of a South Side High School graduate who died last month.
Tommy Maher, of South Hempstead, who has dedicated himself over the last year and a half doing good deeds around the country in honor of people killed in mass shootings, honored Ryan O’Shea, who was struck and killed by a train on Jan. 11 in Rockville Centre. He was 18.
On Feb. 15, Maher, 52, a retired New York City sanitation worker, left basketballs in the gym of the John A. Anderson Recreation Center on North Oceanside Road in memory of O’Shea, who served as a captain for the Cyclones during his senior season. He led the basketball team in scoring and rebounding that year, and was named a first-team All-County selection. O’Shea also volunteered for Hoops For All, a local basketball program for children and teenagers with special needs.
Maher also stopped by Parmagianni and gave the eatery $130 to pay for customers’ orders to honor O’Shea. Dylan Delury, the general manager, added $100 of his own money. “The crazy thing about this is — I wasn’t planning on coming here,” Maher wrote on Facebook. “While I was driving, the name Parmagianni kept on popping in my head, so I just drove there and did this. No coincidences!!”
In November 2017, Maher traveled to Las Vegas to do good deeds in honor of the 58 people killed in the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting. He paid for strangers’ meals and gave them roses, and after each kind act, he gave the recipient a bracelet engraved with a victim’s name.

He has used his own money to drive to other communities devastated by mass shootings to spread kindness, including Parkland, Fla., after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, and Pittsburgh, after the Tree of Life synagogue massacre, both in 2018.
Maher’s most recent acts came just a week after community members and the family members of Route 91 victims gathered at a fundraiser in Oceanside to honor Maher’s work and help him continue it.
Linda Griski Grace, a customer of Parmagianni, wrote on Facebook, “I was there tonight waiting for my order and got to listen to the reactions of so many people who were told that their meal was paid for. Kindness is contagious!”

Anthony O’Reilly contributed to this story.