By Evan Nemeroff
These words describe Lawrence High School phys. ed. teacher Carol Roseto. She is the school's advisor for Key Club, which organizes and takes part in volunteer activities and raises money for special causes. She volunteers her time to mentor special education and life skills students. This year, she helped one of her former students deal with a debilitating bone disease.
The Herald is proud to name Roseto its 2008 Person of the Year. A graduate of Jericho High School, she has worked at Lawrence High since 2000.
“The community is fortunate to have someone in the school like Carol Roseto,” said Pete Sobol, the Herald's 2007 honoree, who has taken part in volunteer work with Roseto. “She treats the students like they're members of her own family. If the kids need help, Carol is always there.”
Lawrence High School Principal Geoff Touretz describes Roseto as “the personification of school spirit,” and as “an excellent teacher who is optimistic, relentless and very special.”
Touretz added, “This is how she is best known. She is an individual with ... compassion, and [she] channels this into energy. She does so much fundraising for the American Cancer Society, for the less fortunate and her own students who face challenges.”
One such student is Daniel Cornejo, a 2007 Lawrence High graduate who suffers from osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone syndrome. This genetic disease creates abnormalities of protein in the bones, making them easily breakable and restricting Cornejo to a wheelchair. Roseto has helped guide him since his first day of high school six years ago.
“When I started out in high school, I was traumatized ...,” Cornejo said. “Basically, when I got into the high school I was a mess. I wouldn't go anywhere near anyone playing any sports or anything. I would try to avoid the hallways during hall passing. She helped me out mentally and physically to become stronger. I have so much to thank her for.”
Since Cornejo graduated, Roseto has kept in close touch with him. The two talk on the phone at least once a week. In March, Roseto established I'll Stand by You, a not-for-profit organization to raise money for Cornejo's cause. Her goal is to raise $30,000 to purchase a disability-friendly van so he can drive himself to Nassau Community College, where he is now a student.
Cornejo lives in Inwood. To get to school, he pays $7 round-trip with a subscription to the handicapped-accessible ABLE-Ride service. The commute from Inwood to Garden City is normally around 30 minutes, but even with ABLE-Ride, the trip takes Cornejo about three hours.
To help fund I’ll Stand by You, Roseto also established the Dan's Cans for a Van program, whose participants collect redeemable recyclables. To date, I’ll Stand by You has amassed just over $22,000, just $8,000 short of its goal.
“She has done so much for me,” Cornejo said. “I don't even know where to begin. She has helped me throughout high school, and now I’m at Nassau and she's currently still helping me try to get a car. She's helped me be a better person and has been there for me basically every step for the past six years.”
In just the past year, Roseto has helped organize the Long Island regional Special Olympics; Relay for Life, an overnight walk to raise money for the American Cancer Society; and two blood drives at Lawrence High. Because it has two drives, the school gets special recognition from the American Red Cross, and a student receives a scholarship from the organization.
As Key Club advisor at the high school, Roseto organized two drives to help battered women, one to gather winter coats, clothing and accessories, and another to collect recycled holiday cards and cell phones. And during a cystic fibrosis telethon, Key Club members took over the main office phones and made calls to the community asking for donations.
Lawrence High graduate Nicole Marie was a member of the Key Club for four years and has done volunteer work with Roseto. “She taught us to always give back to those less fortunate than us and that there are other people that need help,” Marie said. “She told us to always have the same respect for others that we would want to be treated with.”
Roseto organizes ski trips for her students, and buys candy for them to sell to pay for the trips. And when a student walks by with the candy, she has been known to reach into her pocket and buy some.
Sobol, who has teamed up with Roseto on multiple occasions to do volunteer work, hosted a Thanksgiving food drive for the indigent at Sobol’s Distributors in Inwood last month, and Roseto and her Key Club students took part. When Roseto first heard about the drive, she called Sobol and offered the club’s help. Key Club members, along with other students from the high school, gathered canned food for almost a month. “Her work even goes outside of the school community,” Sobol said. “She distributes food to people she’s never seen.”
When Roseto isn't collecting money and food for charity, she makes time to help those around her in other ways. Sabrina Lynch, the secretary for the director of curriculum at the high school, was talking with Roseto recently about baking cookies called honey balls, which her grandmother used to make. Lynch told Roseto that she was upset that she had not had time to make them in a very long time. A few days later, Roseto brought Lynch a batch of honey balls. “Carol is such a wonderful person,” Lynch said. “She is always thinking about everyone and is always there helping others.”
From all accounts, Roseto takes caring to the next level, and shows no signs of slowing down. “Carol cares more than the rest of us,” Sobol said. “She is committed to the students and gives the kids more than just academics. She teaches them life skills and leads by example. She is more than a teacher and more than a coach. To many kids, she is an angel.”
Comments about this story? ENemeroff@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 210.
