South Side Middle Schoolers donate to veterans

Students collect 1,000 pounds of food for those in need

Posted

Three boys from South Side Middle School knew exactly what they wanted to do to give back to their community as part of a collaborative class project.

James Loud, Michael Riomao and Declan Sheehan, eighth-graders at the school, collected food over a three-week span and donated it to the Nassau County Veterans Service Agency in an effort to pay it forward.

Being that Loud’s father, Ed, is a veteran himself and a member of the Rockville Centre American Legion Post 303, Loud thought it was a great idea. The trio reached out to Frank Colon, the commander of the post, to make their plans.

“I brought them to a meeting one night and they approached Frank and asked him what a good thing would be to do to help out the veterans,” Ed recalled, “and Frank suggested the food drive — to make a food donation for the vets — so that’s what the boys ran with and dedicated themselves to.” 

Colon connected the boys to the Veterans Service Agency, a county-run program based in East Meadow that offers services and benefits for veterans.

Loud, Riomao and Sheehan set up collection boxes in the school, at their houses and even at Ed’s workplace in Freeport. And before the students, who are also members of Boy Scout Troop 40 in Rockville Centre, submitted their project write-up and presentation for a grade, they donated their collections to the veterans food pantry attached to the East Meadow facility.

About 1,000 pounds of food and canned goods were donated.

“I was extremely proud of the boys, that they went and took that step to help out our veterans,” said Ed, a U.S. Navy veteran, “and that they advertised it pretty well amongst the community and were willing to make that effort to help out the veterans in need.”

The act of kindness came right before Memorial Day coming up on May 31, a federal holiday dedicated to honoring and mourning the men and women who have died while serving their country.

“I think it’s fantastic — the young men that take the initiative to go ahead and help the veterans in need,” Colon said of the boys’ efforts, adding that their contributions will help veterans who, in some cases, don’t have access to meals or places to live. 

There are about 80,000 veterans in Nassau County, Colon said; about 110,000 in Suffolk County; and, overall, about 5,000 veterans on Long Island face homelessness. 

“Those kids are phenomenal. You don’t know how much it means to these vets,” said Ralph Esposito, the director of the Vet Mart food pantry. “We have a lot of [veterans] — with this pandemic and what’s going on — out of work and trying to feed their family, trying to pay their bills, electric and gas, and their rent and their doctors.”

When the students visited Esposito and told him about their plans, he said he was in tears.

“I’m so proud to do what I’m doing. We have so many people that are hurting,” he said, adding that he assists veterans however possible, allowing them to pay their bills and stay in the community rather than move away.

“They gave so much for our country,” Esposito said, “and the gratitude, I mean, if it wasn’t for these kids doing what they do — God bless them, really.”

Esposito, who works alongside other volunteers that work with the Veterans Service Agency, launched the Vet Mart about seven years ago when he saw that local veterans were experiencing financial troubles. Long Island Cares and Island Harvest contribute to the food bank, too, as well as local schools, civic associations, American Legions, Veterans of Foreign Wars and other groups. It’s open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. For more information, call (516) 572-6565.

Esposito thanked the administration of County Executive Laura Curran for doing a great job with the county’s veterans.

“My ten people that work for me are a family,” he said. “This was a little extra — the Vet Mart — but it’s working and it’s working well, and it’s making people happy and that’s what counts. Saving them money — it’s a great thing and I’m happy to do it.”