The TIMES of Smithtown
Volume 28, No. 9
SERVING SMITHTOWN • ST. JAMES • NESCONSET • COMMACK • HAUPPAUGE • KINGS PARK • FORT SALONGA April 30, 2015
$1.00
Smithtown HS student organizes recycling run BY BARBARA DONLON
An evening with Chef Paolo Fontana
Also: ‘The Man Who Came to Dinner’ in Northport; Helen Stein Shack Picture Book winners
PAGE B1
Three vie for BOE seats Candidates throw hats into ring with hopes of serving Smithtown
PAGE A7
A Smithtown West High School junior is going the extra mile and hosting a recycling project in the form of a 5-kilometer race at Sunken Meadow State Park in June to promote a greener mindset across Long Island. Rachel Gladstone, 17, has arranged the first ever Sunken Meadow Recycling Project 5K Race and 1/2 Mile Fun Run for Kids at Sunken Meadow State Park as her community project for the Girl Scout Gold Award she is working toward. “I wanted to do something for the community at Sunken Meadow [State Park],” Gladstone said in a phone interview. “I really wanted to do something big and worthwhile.” The cross-country runner said the idea came to her while passing through the park and seeing just how many recyclables were being thrown into the trash. She coupled that knowledge with knowing the park hosts several races, and let the two notions work together to form her own unique project. “Every time I go there, I see trash cans always full to the top with bottles,” Gladstone said. Gladstone said one of her
Agree to go green Photo from Allison Gayne
Sunken Meadow State Park Director Jeffrey J. Mason meets with Smithtown West High School Junior Rachel Gladstone to review plans for Gladstone’s first Sunken Meadow Recycling Project 5K Race and 1/2 Mile Fun Run for Kids taking place at Sunken Meadow State Park on June 13, which Gladstone is organizing in conjunction with Girls Scouts of Suffolk County as part of her Girl Scout Gold Award.
biggest goals is to take the money raised at the run and buy recycling bins to place at various locations throughout the 1288acre park and to also help promote recycling behavior by taking extra measures to make the bins visible to the public. The teen said she is very big into environmental science and recycling, and she hopes
to study it at the college level once she graduates form high school. Her mom, Ellyn Gladstone, said her daughter has been interested in recycling since an early age and she is happy to see her putting this project together. The Gold Award that Gladstone is working so hard toward is the highest achieve-
ment in girl scouting, she said. It is a seven-step project that challenges the scout to change the world, and requires a minimum 80 hours of work — something Gladstone is sure to surpass as she continues to organize and promote the race. According to one of Gladstone’s troop leaders, Paula RACE continued on page A10
St. Patrick’s car show revs Smithtown’s engines Car lovers from across Long Island put their feet to the gas pedal over the weekend as the 10th annual St. Patrick’s Car Show made its way to St. Patrick’s church in Smithtown. The beloved car expo first started 10 years ago when John Forlenza and his wife Cindy had two children attending St. Patrick School. Their daughter Jessica was in second grade and their son John in preschool. As parents of Catholic school children, they said they knew well the need for fundraising. They struggled to come up with new fundraising ideas for the school, but it was their children who came up with an idea that was near and dear to their father’s heart — a car show. See photos of the show on page A9. - PHIL CORSO
Photo from Becky Reilly
A boy races on an obstacle course of orange cones at the 10th annual St. Patrick’s car show.