TIMES HERALD The Village
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Stony Brook • old Field • Strong’S neck • Setauket • eaSt Setauket •L A South N Setauket • Poquot t August 27, 2015
Volume 40, No. 26
D S C A P E /M
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Iconic footwear at LIM
Baby, 1 more time
also: ‘Orphans’ in Huntington, ‘Down the Road’ in Port Jeff, Dogs for Dolphins fundraiser
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Stony Brook hospital births 100,000th baby By giSelle Barkley
Chabad stepping up to pay it forward Stony Brook community crafts sentimental book to move forward
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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, gynecology 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 tuition at the North Shore Montessori School, a $500 shopping spree among other gifts for the parents and their newborn. Luca’s older sister Gianna, who was also delivered at Stony Brook, was also awarded a brand new American Girl doll. “Truly from the bottom of our hearts and all of our family’s hearts, we greatly appreciate it,” Mike Picarella said. The entire Picarella family said they were thankful for the gifts and shocked by the news that they were the couple who birthed the 100,000th baby. “Stuff like this doesn’t happen to us,” Katie Picarella said when speaking to the media. According to her, the birth was scheduled for Friday after doctors realized the baby
Photos by giselle Barkley
Top, blue and pink cupcakes to celebrate the 100,000th birth at the Stony Brook university hospital. above, katie Picarella holds her son.
would come before the end of August. But Picarella rescheduled the C-section delivery date because she wanted to have enough time to recover in order to attend her daughter’s kindergarten screening. The family of four also had the opportunity of meeting Jeff Solomon, who was the first baby born at Stony Brook University Hospital on May 28, 1980, at 8:15 a.m. Jeff Solomon’s father Bob Solomon
and step-mother Hope also attended the conference and met the family. Before the family prepared to go home, Griffin highlighted the importance of the birth. “For years the number of births on Long Island have been going down,” Griffin said. “We’re actually starting to see in the last year or two that the births have been going up.” See page A9 for photos.