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Scarsdale Residents Help Hurricane Victims & Kids in Need

-November 28, 2012

On Saturday November 17th 40 members of St. James The Less Episcopal Church in Scarsdale went to the New Dorp neighborhood on Staten Island to help residents whose lives had been affected by Hurricane Sandy.

The volunteers from St. James the Less supported efforts organized by The Movement Church, a local church. The New Dorp neighborhood sits adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean just to the east of the Verrazano Bridge. The low lying neighborhood was inundated with waters from Sandy's storm surge. The waters flooded most of the homes and totaled many cars.

The St. James The Less volunteers helped homeowners remove water logged sheet rock and ruined appliances from their homes. Everyone was required to wear protective masks because the mold inside some of the homes posed health risks. The volunteers also cooked and served 320 lunches to residents, other volunteers and utility workers. Frank Schwall who helped organize the work day said "We were told that SJTL volunteers serving lunch to residents and utility workers from Staten Island warm meals were needed so we brought our barbeque grills and cooked hamburgers and hotdogs. Our church was glad we could help out."

Among the 40 volunteers where 15 youth group members from the church. The kids helped with the work crews and with serving lunch. Several of the kids expressed the sentiment that although Sandy had been tough on Scarsdale things were much worse on Staten Island. Steven Martino, pastor of The Movement Church on Staten Island, told Father Tom Newcomb, rector of St. James the Less, that he was grateful for the physical and spiritual help the volunteers provided. St. James The Less plans to continue to help out residents in New Dorp as the recovery effort continues.

2012 Turkey Shoot Out: The Sixth Annual Thanksgiving Turkey Shootout tournament was held at Scarsdale Golf Club on November 17th. This charitable event is an individual stroke play tournament with the winner or "Turkey", of each flight being the one with the highest net score. They had a great golfing event in crisp and sunny weather with 34 men and women participating in the tournament. Additionally, many members who could not attend the event as well as members of Scarsdale Golf Club's professional staff contributed to the charity purse. This year, for the first time, there was a tie in two of the three flights for a grand total of 5 Turkey Winners! With the additional contributions from the five flight winners, they raised a record $6,700.00 for the Thanksgiving charity purse.

On behalf of all of the donors, Ralph Watts presented two checks in the amount of $3,350.00 to the Westchester Coalition for the Hungry and Homeless and to the Grace Church Community Center. These food pantries provided Thanksgiving dinners to the needy and disadvantaged as well as families effected by Hurricane Sandy.

Constantin and Roth at Kids Kloset

Kids Kloset: Westchester Jewish Community Services (WJCS) used the occasion of Thanksgiving to officially thank George Constantin, CEO of Heritage Realty Services, for rescuing one of its programs -- Kid's Kloset -- after a fire destroyed the program's inventory and location. On November 20, WJCS presented Mr. Constantin with its Corporate Hero Award for providing a temporary space for Kid's Kloset to continue to operate. As a result, Kid's Kloset has been able to further its mission of providing gently-used children's clothes and essentials to local families in need.

"Mr. Constantin's generosity of spirit has been a tremendous blessing," said Stephanie Roth, Kid's Kloset Director. "WJCS is more than grateful that he recognized the void Kid's Kloset fills in the community and provided us with a way to continue our mission.

"The success of Kid's Kloset is totally reliant on the generosity of others – people who donate children's clothes, people who contribute time to sort and redistribute those items and people like Mr. Constantin who provide us with the all-important base of operation. He is truly Kid's Kloset's hero."

A volunteer driven program of Westchester Jewish Community Services (WJCS), Kid's Kloset has provided "bags of love" – a week's worth of clothing – to more than 2,000 local children in need since September 2011. Kid's Kloset is currently seeking cold-weather clothing, especially winter outerwear as well as boots and sneakers. Interested in contributing to or volunteering at Kid's Kloset, contact 914-831-7616 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Rotary Food Drive

The Rotary Club of Scarsdale has organized a Food Drive to bring relief to the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Scarsdale Rotarians are collaborating with Rotarians based in Manhattan, and have identified a community with extraordinary needs at this time.

The Rockaway community was devastated in the storm and is still mostly without electricity. It has been projected that electricity may not be restored until the end of the year. Each week the Rotary loads trucks and vans and drive the donations down to Rockaway ourselves. Scarsdale Rotarians also volunteer to help with the distribution of the donations. All donations are given to those in need as soon as possible. The Food Drive will be ongoing until our assistance is no longer needed.

We want to acknowledge three organizations that have been collecting food for our Food Drive. The Harrison / Mamaroneck Rotary Club, the Harrison PTA, and the University of Connecticut Athletic Department and Students have collected an enormous amount of donations for our Food Drive.

They are collecting non-perishable food, bottled water, cleaning supplies, bleach, and paper towels.

Please drop of your donations at the following collection sites: