By Hector Flores
The award is given to teens who exemplify consistently outstanding performance and demonstrate leadership, volunteerism, integrity and service to their community, non-profit organizations and residents. Alderman was presented the award during a ceremony at his house on Rose Lane last Sunday. Presiding over the event was Town of Hempstead Councilman Gary Hudes, a Republican of East Meadow.
³Andrew is an extraordinary young man with a commitment to the community that I can only hope will spread to some of our other young people in the community,² Hudes said.
Alderman was happy to receive the accolades, but was most excited that his grandfather was there to see it. ³I¹m glad and happy that my Papa Carl was here,² Alderman said. ³I never thought that I would receive all this recognition and awards for my volunteerism.²
Alderman started raising money for Lupus research after finding out that his mother¹s best friend had contracted the disease. ³I began raising money by volunteering in walks, and after years of volunteering I have learned that everyone has the potential to contract the disease, but something has to trigger it,² Alderman said. ³Lupus attacks your internal organs and immune system, and the medicine given to treat Lupus makes them even sicker and slowly kills them, like tobacco.²
Lupus affects 2 million people each year, but awareness of the disease is limited. Alderman hopes that his work and the attention he has received will help change that.
Andrew¹s mother, Loraine, said that her son has been working hard to find a cure for Lupus by helping raise money for the Lupus Alliance of Long Island/Queens. In addition to raising funds for the organization¹s annual walkathon, which takes place in October in Eisenhower Park, Alderman has also put in many hours at the organization¹s headquarters in Bellmore. ³It started as a volunteer project for the honors project for his bar mitzvah,² Loraine said. ³He spent hours working in their office stuffing envelopes, folding T-shirts and helping them prepare for the walkathon.²
During his first year as a volunteer, Alderman raised $1,082. In his second he raised $1,242, in his third, over $2,000, and in 2005 he raised $2,500 for the walkathon.
He has spent hours every year putting walkathon brochures in local stores in an effort to bring attention to the event. ³For the past four years, Andrew has been helping set up the walkathon at 7 a.m., and helps serve food to the walkers when they finish the walk,² Loraine said. ³He also does the walk himself, by taking a break and jogging through the course. Once he is finished, he goes back to serving food to the rest of the walkers.²
Andrew is a sophomore at East Meadow High School. When he was a student at Woodland Middle School, he was in the Junior Honor Society, and in seventh and eighth grade he was a member of Woodland¹s lacrosse team. He has played lacrosse for the high school for the past two years.
He holds a junior black belt at the Go Shin Kan dojo in Merrick, and has been studying jujitsu since age 3. He also volunteers at the dojo, helping younger students, and he is a member of the demonstration team that performs every year at the Bellmore Street Festival. For the past two summers he has also volunteered as the ball boy for the Long Island Lizards professional lacrosse team.
After Sunday¹s presidential award ceremony, Andrew¹s father, Bill, said, ³Parenting is not an exact science. You surround your child with positive role models. For this I would like to thank everyone for showing my son their best.²
Comments about this story? HFlores@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 283.
