By:Cindy J. Roth
Local houses of worship, including the Bellmore Jewish Center, are helping in the relief effort by collecting non-perishable foods, water and clothing.
Sidebar #1: How to help
Here is where you can donate relief supplies locally:
Helen Ballestas and Maryanne Juchem
2374 Schiller Avenue
North Bellmore, NY 11710
(516) 409-9078
County Legis. David Denenberg's District Office
2818 Merrick Road
Bellmore, NY 11710
(516) 409-6623
Verity Van Lines
3685 Merrick Road
Seaford, NY 11783
(516) 785-7620
Supplies needed
Here's a list of what supplies relief workers need:
Bottled water
Gatorade
Boxed cookies
Granola bars
Men's white T-shirts
Men's socks
Men's underwear
Work boots
Work gloves
Plastic raincoats
Flat sheets
Plastic bags
Cell-phone chargers, new or used
Flashlights and batteries
Dog and cat food
The Bellmore Family Street Festival has been cancelled for this weekend and rescheduled for Nov. 3-4. For more information contact the Bellmore Chamber of Commerce at (516) 679-1875.
Helen Ballestas of North Bellmore is a registered nurse at North Shore Hospital in Glen Cove. She desperately wanted to aid in the New York City relief effort, but said she could not bear to go into the city. Ballestas and neighbor Maryanne Juchem have found another way to help. The two women are organizing a relief drive from Ballestas' home on Schiller Avenue to collect everything from water to dog food to T-shirts and flashlights.
"So many people want to help, but just don't know how," Juchem said.
Ballestas will collect at her home on Thursday and Friday, and the American Red Cross will pick up the donated goods and take them to the city for the weekend.
"Everyone is talking they want to do, do, do," Ballestas said. "I want to take the first step and get the name of Bellmore to help in the city."
Ballestas and Juchem's collection is just one of many in Bellmore and North Bellmore. Local synagogues, churches, community groups, schools and government officials are all pitching in to aid New York City relief workers and families who lost loved ones.
The Bellmore Lions Club has written a $2,000 check for relief effforts and is deciding where to send it, said Victor Elefante, the club's president. The Lions Club is also coordinating with the Bellmore Kiwanis Club and Bellmore Chamber of Commerce for future relief efforts.
The chamber has postponed its annual Family Street Festival, scheduled for this weekend to show respect for those working relief efforts in the city and for families who may have lost loved ones. The festival is rescheduled for Nov. 3-4. A prayer vigil sponsored by the Christian Joy Fellowship Church will take place both days of rescheduled festival.
The Bellmore Chamber of Commerce is teaming up with the Merrick Chamber of Commerce, the Bellmore-Merrick Central School District and the Community Wellness Council for relief drives at all five of the Central district's schools. Kate Collins, district spokesperson, said students are collecting non-perisable foods, shirts, water, socks and other items that will be picked up in vans by chamber and Wellness Council members and dropped off at local moving companies, which will ship the supplies to lower Manhattan.
The Bellmore School District is also busy with a relief collection. Letters were sent home last week asking parents to send their children to school with supplies, which will be given to the Long Island Moving and Storage Company on Friday for delivery to the city. In the classrooms, children are writing messages to rescue workers, including poems, cards and letters that a local firefighter will deliver to the city.
The district has also declared Friday Red, White and Blue Day, and children will place flags they made outside their schools. To aid families who lost loved ones in the catastrophe, the Bellmore district will collect money, said Sheldon Dumain, Bellmore superintendent.
James Parla, North Bellmore superintendent, said his district had no concrete relief plans at press time, but they were in the works. Right now, the school district is reaching out to families that are missing members and extending help to the community in whatever capacity it can, including providing psychologists and social workers.
Many Bellmore area residents are turning to prayer during this crisis. Most Bellmore and North Bellmore churches and synagogues this week held extra services or special vigils. Many houses of worship are also becoming relief collection sites.
The Bellmore Jewish Center on Centre Avenue collected many supplies last Friday that were taken by local rescue workers to the city. Last Friday, St. Barnabas the Apostle Roman Catholic Church on Bedford Avenue and Bellmore Presbyterian Church on Bellmore Avenue also collected relief items in conjunction with Verity Van Lines, a Seaford-based moving and storage company. Verity Van Lines became involved in the relief effort after one of the company's drivers said he wanted to help drive supplies into Manhattan, said Michael Maffucci, company president. Once word spread about one truck heading in, all of the drivers volunteered to go in, he said.
"The support is unbelievable," said Maffucci. "There has been non-stop people coming in. We got two trucks loaded now, and [the collection] just started. We have a tremendous amount of water, clothing, dog food, blankets, Gatorade and shovels. I could open a supermarket."
Maffucci was astonished by community support for the relief effort. Considering last week's collection success, Verity Van Lines may make more supply runs into the city during the coming weeks.
"It's amazing to see how people grab onto an idea and get motivated," Maffucci said.
For county Legis. David Denenberg (D-Merrick), becoming motivated behind relief efforts came naturally, especially since he was in lower Manhattan the day of the terrorist attack.
"I saw it," Denenberg said. "I kept thinking it was like America's loss of its aura of invincibility."
Denenberg was to meet a client downtown and took a subway to Canal Street. Emerging from underground, Denenberg saw fire, but was unsure from where. Then, he heard rumbling at the World Trade Center and witnessed lower Manhattan erupt in chaos as people ran furiously in different directions away from the devastation.
Denenberg's Bellmore office on Merrick Road has become a center for the World Trade Center Relief Fund, collecting various food and supply items and money that is shipped to the city daily. The office is also distributing American flags and urging community members to fly them to show unity. Community members looking for missing loved ones can call the office, where they will be given information on different hotlines for missing persons, support groups and blood-donation sites.
"It's so unbelievable," Denenberg said. "This is one of those defining moments in a generation."
Norma Gonsalves (R-East Meadow) said local residents can call her Mineola office to be connected with hotline numbers, as well.
"It's a sad situation,"Gonsalves said. "It will take a long time if we ever forget it."
