The ties that bind Bellmore-Merrick

Students in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District’s five schools are working to tie the community together — literally and figuratively.

Thanks to the brainstorming of a Kennedy High School junior, the district has launched the Ties 4 Ties initiative: a Bellmore-Merrick-wide collection of neckties. Organizers hope the charity project will bring the community together with a common goal of setting a Guinness world record for the longest chain of neckties.

Eileen Connolly, a Kennedy High School assistant principal, said that junior Cory Epstein is one of 17 student ambassadors at the school. This winter, the leadership group was discussing ways to unite the district’s five schools in Bellmore and Merrick.

With the district motto of “One Voice, One Message” in mind, Epstein said he thought for a while about how to tie the community together. That’s when another definition of the word struck him.

“That word resonated in my head,” he said. “Then I thought, Wow, I’m sure so many people have old ties that are collecting dust in their closets. So, we’re symbolically and literally tying our community together with our efforts.”

After researching the topic, Epstein found that there was in fact a Guinness world record for the longest chain of neckties: 7.71 miles, set in Australia in February 2010. He calculated the distance between Calhoun, Kennedy and Mepham high schools — 8.5 miles — and realized they could break the record if the community collected more than 9,500 neckties.

Epstein said he felt that working toward that goal is a positive way to unify the schools in a common cause. He noted that many of the events that involve multiple schools in the district are sports competitions. Ties 4Ties aims to foster a non-competitive atmosphere while giving students an activity to get excited about: the possibility of breaking a world record.

“It’s about not just showing our own community that we’re strong and together, but it’s really showing the world that we can do what we put our minds to,” Epstein said. “I think a lot of people would find that interesting, and it’s just a great element of this project.”