Volunteers Honored at Colonial Youth Ceremony

Some have volunteered for 1,000 hours, some 250, many for 100–all honored at a special ceremony by local officials who said they are well on their way to be the next generation of community leaders.

“They always show up and give one hundred percent,” said Ray Hopp of Colonial Youth Volunteer Corps, a group that has been organizing activities in the Tri-Hamlet Area of Mastic, Shirley and Moriches for nearly 30 years. They start out at William Floyd as juniors and seniors and continue their service into college and adulthood, according to Hopp, the deputy director at the volunteer corps’ parent group, Colonial Youth and Family Services.

One volunteer was Carolyn Borak of Moriches, who’s been at it for 25 years after starting out in junior high. She has participated in all of the group’s activities, including neighborhood cleanups, helping out at food parties, and maintaining the community garden at the town center on Herkimer Street in Mastic. A project Borak said she looks forward to is the Trunk or Treat safe Halloween effort and selling flowers to help students afford their school prom.

Robert Chartuk

Sixteen-year-old Davyen Robinette of Shirley was also in the house for the ceremony, saying he likes the group’s graffiti removal efforts, which have cleaned more than 6,000 areas targeted by vandals, according to Hopp. The volunteers also play a key role in helping more than 200 needy families through the holidays and are always up early to assist with the 5K run to benefit the Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library and the annual triathlon at Smith Point Park.

Robert Chartuk

“They’ve put in more than 87,000 hours of volunteer service,” noted April Coppola, president of the William Floyd School Board. “If they earned the $15 an hour minimum wage, you’re talking $1.3 million in service to our community,” Copolla calculated. “That’s amazing.”

“You are our community’s silent heroes,” Suffolk Legislator Jim Mazzarella told the assembled group. “You just want to help your neighbors, but we’re looking at you to be our next leaders, our civic association presidents, school board members, legislators. This is where it starts,” Mazzarella said.

“What you are giving will stay with you for the rest of your lives,” state Senator Dean Murray said to the volunteers as he awarded them official certificates from his office, as well as from Assemblyman Joe DeStefano. “You’re going to have to build a new wall for all of the awards you’re getting.”

Lynda Zach, Colonial Youth director, said she admires the volunteers for getting up at five o’clock in the morning to help at events. “You have my heartfelt thanks. We appreciate everything you do.”

The volunteer program has been funded through Brookhaven Town Community Block Grants for over three decades. Town Supervisor Ed Romaine and Deputy Dan Panico, the Councilman for the area, sent certificates of recognition. Also attending the event were Ken Olivo and Carmella Currao of the Colonial Youth Board of Directors, Beth Wahl and Rose Maiorana of the William Floyd Community Summit, and Sandra Alfano, Suffolk County Youth Services Coordinator.