By Sarah Moskowitz
Toy's sister Lauren, 2, spent part of the day by her brother's side and the other running around giggling, avoiding the blue curtain that separated blood donors in the back half of the large room.
For the past two years the face of the Knights of Columbus blood drive has been Lynbrook's Matthew Toy. He is more than halfway through his weekly chemotherapy treatments to cure his leukemia. For Matthew, blood drives are very important. Having had more than more than one dozen blood transfusions to combat his disease, he knows first hand that donating blood can save lives.
"I hope we get a lot of blood because it helps people that need it," said Matthew.
The drive, which benefited The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, was sponsored by the Lynbrook Knights of Columbus, and was held at their hall last weekend. This marked the fourth annual blood drive run by Kevin Dowd of Lynbrook, who has been member of the Knights since 1998.
Dowd began organizing blood drives in 1999 and dedicated the first two years to his neighbor Caitlin Petrou, who passed away from leukemia at age 14 just days before the first drive. This year he organized what he hoped to be the largest blood drive in Long Island history.
The goal of the blood drive was to collect 1,000 pints of blood and set a new record. The current record stands at 850 pints, collected by the New York Jets football team in 1992. By the end of the weekend, 511 pints had been collected, shattering the drive's previous total of 433 pints from the past three years.
"I felt ecstatic," said Dowd, noting the large turnout despite residents being on vacation for Labor Day. "Every day beat our prior records."
On Saturday the drive collected 260 pints and 251 on Sunday.
"We feel great about it," said Devin Sullivan, a former Knight of Columbus who assisted Dowd and helped to promote the event this year. "We're very happy. It was a great event. We certainly thank everybody who helped support us."
Sullivan said that the large scale of this year's drive was to represent the greatness of the Lynbrook community, which he feels has been overshadowed during the past year by tarnishes such as the shooting at Our Lady of Peace Roman Catholic Church and the fire at the Nathan Hale Senior Village.
At the blood drive money donations were accepted by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to fund research, patient aid and education for blood-related cancers. Two fundraising raffles were also held, which gave away items including Mets, Broadway and B.B. King tickets, a variety of gift certificates and an autographed Joe Nameth football. The Leukemia Society was able to raise $1,866 during the course of the weekend.
"I was thrilled to be able to bring a check for [that much] back to the office on behalf of everyone in Lynbrook who had donated so generously," said Tracy Lobdell-Yngstrom, a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society volunteer who collected for the raffle this weekend.
"The more money we raise, the more research we support, the more people that can be cured," said Kerri Kaplan, the executive director of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. She added that childhood leukemia now has a cure rate of more than 80 percent, a rate that is directly attributed to research funded by the society.
Matthew's mother, Diane, remembers hard times over the past year while her son was sick. He spent last Christmas hospitalized due to an infection. She thanked Marion Street Elementary School in Lynbrook, where Matthew will be entering the fourth grade, for their support while her son was at his sickest. Through the school district and Cablevision, a digital camera was hooked up to a computer in the Toys' home so Matthew could still receive his education.
"They really went out of their way to make things as easy and as comfortable for him," she said.
Matthew's father Danny recalled difficulties in dealing with leukemia as well. Last year his son had a serious blood clot. His advice is to take things slowly, because there is no telling what tomorrow can bring.
"It sounds clich
