Freeport
HERALD Leader
Summer activities set in Freeport
County opens up athletic fields
MSSN boosts sanitation stations
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Vol. 85 No. 28
JUlY 9 - 15, 2020
Their goal is a clean ocean Operation SPLASH continues 30 years of environmental work volunteers are back at work collecting garbage and building a new SPLASH boat after the coroWhen Rob Weltner was grow- navirus pandemic delayed their ing up in Freeport, he loved boat- annual launch day in March. ing and diving along the South The organization was foundShore, but over the ed 30 years ago by years, the now Joanne Grover, a 64-year-old said, the Freeport native who marine environment wanted to clean up has changed dramatlocal waters and ically. restore them to the Gone are the days way they were when of a clean ocean she was growing up floor, as pollution in the village. and garbage have O p e r a t i o n become the norm on SPLASH has about the South Shore, 200 active volunteers greatly affecting the who go out on six marine life that supboats to collect tons ports the local econof garbage every omy and culture in year. They have colFreeport. lected about 2.5 mil“It just became lion pounds of trash covered in trash in the past three RoB WElTNER throughout the decades. decades,” Weltner Operation SPLASH Ja c q u e l i n e L e said. “We need to do Duc, of Freeport, something about it, joined the group two because our economy is tied to years ago, and is helping Weltner fishing and recreation on the build the seventh SPLASH boat. shore.” Le Duc said that all kinds of garAs president of Operation bage can be found in the water, SPLASH (Stop Polluting, Litter- from plastic bags and bottles to ing, and Save Harbors) — a local guns and bullet shells. nonprofit organization that SPLASH headquarters, on the works to clean up the South Shore — Weltner and his fellow Continued on page 4
By RoNNY REYES rreyes@liherald.com
W
Courtesy Michele Velasquez
ThE GiBlYN ElEMENTaRY School Birthday Brigade surprised 98 students with birthday parties from April to June.
Celebrating nearly 100 birthdays Giblyn teaching assistants bring smiles to students By RoNNY REYES rreyes@liherald.com
When Marianna Hernandez, a teaching assistant at Giblyn Elementary School, came down with Covid-19 in March, she felt terrible. Not only was she stuck at home fighting the illness, but she was also separated from her Giblyn students, who she figured were having a hard time adapting to distance learning and life amid the pandemic. As soon as Hernandez was
medically cleared to return to work, she threw herself into helping her community, volunteering to distribute food to students who lacked transportation through the district’s “Grab & Go” meal program. When Hernandez learned that one student she was delivering food to had a birthday coming up, she took it a step further, and with fellow teaching assistant Michele Velasquez, founded the Birthday Brigade, a group of Giblyn teaching assistants who
helped celebrate the birthdays of nearly 100 students in Freeport from April to the end of June. “After I recovered, I had all this energy that I needed to put into something,” Hernandez said. “I needed to do this.” Although she had beaten the virus, she recognized how badly it had ravaged her community. Freeport was the third-hardest-hit community in Nassau County, with more Continued on page 3
e need to do something about it, because our economy is tied to fishing and recreation on the shore.