Cablevision Honors NBHS As NY "Charity Champions" Winner
North Babylon High School was honored and recognized during an assembly on June 8 by Cablevision’s Power to Learn as the New York State Charity Champions winner for its efforts on behalf of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Under the leadership of Ms. Barbara Brown, a teacher and Dean of Discipline at North Babylon High School, the high school has raised over $20,000 this year, and last year, for Ride for Life, the local ALS Chapter. Along with the recognition comes a $5,000 check from Power to Learn for the Ride for Life organization and that check was presented to Mr. Christopher Pendergast, the founder of Ride for Life who has lived with ALS for 17 very difficult years. There was also a $1,000 check for the furtherance of the students’ charitable activities. The checks were presented by Cablevision Vice President of Education Mr. Trent Anderson who spoke of the fundraising events of North Babylon students to raise awareness and funds for ALS. Town of Babylon Supervisor Steve Bellone, a North Babylon graduate himself, told students how proud he is of them.
The presentation and program were particularly inspiring as several students who had been involved in the ALS fundraising spoke. Brittany Robert talked about her aunt who struggled with the disease which robbed her of her mobility and the pleasure of singing. Jillian Manzo spoke eloquently about Mrs. Mary Murphy, a librarian at the high school who was diagnosed with ALS five years before and whose heroic struggle inspired a whole school. Though she lived for less than a year after her diagnosis, Mrs. Murphy continues to inspire a student body even though they weren’t even in the high school when she was there.
Natalie James spoke eloquently about how her generation is characterized as being lazy, egoistical, and self-centered but how this year they have proven the critics wrong because they have shown that they do care not only for themselves but for the lives of others. And she talked about what heroes Mr. Pendergast and Mrs. Murphy are for students at the high school.
Matt Scavone said that by volunteering he received so much more than he had given and he told about how Mr. Pendergast had inspired and helped him by teaching him “about courage, about perseverance against unimaginable odds, and about faith.” Darrin McGarrity talked about his grandmother who died of ALS in 2004 after living with the disease for only 9 months. He knows first hand how devastating the disease is. He also spoke about Mr. Pendergast whom he said was “the most giving, selfless man that (he) had ever met” and who helped turn his anger and sadness over the loss of his grandmother into determination to find a cure. He said that he realized that just as Lou Gehrig was the “Iron Horse” of baseball, all the patients living with ALS are true Iron Horses in life and that Chris Pendergast is an Iron Horse.
Anyone who listened to these students talk knows that indeed many, many North Babylon students are not selfish but are fully aware of the responsibility of being part of the human community and of giving back to that community. These students who spoke represent a large part of the student body. As their Principal Mr. Ray Williams said, “Our young people, as evidenced by the body of people sitting here today, are hard working, giving, kind, strong, and they would give the shirts off their backs as long as there is a good cause. Well, the cause is ALS and Mary Murphy, a librarian who served her students with the same sense of civic virtues and goodness in her heart that these young people all displayed while fundraising for ALS.”
Cablevision paid quite a tribute to the hundreds of students involved in the fundraising, to the teachers and people who inspire them, and to a school that fosters such community service and caring. The district can be quite proud.
