BEACON RECORD The Village
& Sons Inc.
Mount Sinai • Miller Place • Sound Beach • rocky Point • ShorehaM • Wading river • leiSure country august 27, 2015
volume 31, no. 5
LANDSC APE/MAS
ON WORK $1.00
751–1406 or 928–2110
Iconic footwear at LIM
also: ‘Orphans’ in Huntington, ‘Down the Road’ in Port Jeff, Dogs for Dolphins fundraiser
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Baby, one more time Photos by giselle Barkley
Hoops for Hope
Engel family, who lost son Jake to drugs, raise addiction awareness
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above, katie Picarella, center, is wheeled onto a red carpet while her husband Mike and daughter gianna walk alongside. Below, blue and pink cupcakes celebrate the 100,000th birth at the Stony Brook university hospital.
Rocky Point couple delivers 100,000th baby By giSelle Barkley
It’s a boy. It’s also a major milestone. Katie Picarella of Rocky Point was wheeled into the room with her new bundle of joy and her husband Mike and daughter Gianna, 5, to celebrate the birth of Stony Brook University Hospital’s 100,000th baby, Luca Michael Picarella, on Thursday, Aug. 20. And by the time she was wheeled out, she had much more than a new member to her family. The hospital presented blue cupcakes surrounding several pink cupcakes that spelled “100K,” in the hospital’s lobby in celebration of the event. Todd Griffin, chair of the department of obstetrics, gynecol-
ogy and reproductive medicine, said he expected Katie Picarella to give birth near the end of August, and he was right. Attending OB/GYN and former Stony Brook student Julie Welischar delivered Luca the morning of Monday, Aug. 17. Until a week ago the Picarella family was unaware of the news that Stony Brook was expecting its 100,000th birth. “A friend of ours told us [that they] had been following this,” Mike Picarella said. “I started looking at it and [the friend] said, ‘you guys are getting close. It’d be funny if you guys are the couple.’” But the expectant father said he was still surprised when the doctors informed him that his newborn son was the 100,000th baby. The family didn’t just leave
with their new baby boy. They also left with a gift basket that awarded the Picarella family a $10,000 scholarship from the Island Federal Credit Union, a $2,500 scholarship toward tu-
ition at the North Shore Montessori School, a $500 shopping spree among other gifts for the parents and their newborn. Luca’s older sister Gianna, BaBY continued on page a12