Mercy Inn Soup Kitchen

While most people were busy with last minute Christmas Eve preparations and kids had visions of the gifts they would receive, several students from the Bethpage High School Student Civic Association decided on a different direction.            

Jen Emmett, Alexa Gold,  Simon Jambrone, Alex Melendex and Amy Stupiello arrived at 10 a.m. in Wyandanch at the Mercy Inn Soup Kitchen to prepare and serve lunch for about fifty cold, hungry and thankful guests.  Under the watchful tutelage of veteran volunteers, Simon washed bell peppers for a sausage and pepper dish donated from Long Island markets,  Alexa made extra tuna and egg salad sandwiches for the guests to take away, Jen and her friend Themi Tampassopoulos from Nassau Community College rationed slices of pumpkin pie while Alex and Amy poured hot coffee or tea with milk and sugar.   Although everyone was busy with their own job, all volunteers chatted, became acquainted and served with an incredible amount of  serenity and smiles, in expectation of opening the doors at noon.                                                             

Holiday music filled the dining room, amid the chatter and laughter of the guests.   From noon to one, guests mingled, finished their lunch consisting of roasted chicken soup, sausage and peppers, oven-baked chicken, mixed salad, bread and butter, pumpkin pie, and coffee.   As guests left to brave the cold, Amy handed out extra sandwiches and some donations of warm knit sweaters, gloves, scarves, hats and a few small children's gifts just in case some guests may have had children deprived of a holiday gift.  The students then helped to clean the dining hall, remove garbage bags, disinfect trays and serving areas, sweep and rearrange the hall for tomorrow's lunch.  Lunches are served weekdays, including holidays and staffed by all-volunteer personnel.  Food donations are from local Long Island markets, Entemann's and Good Samaritan Hospital.                                                                                                                                                                                               

As parents arrived to pick up their sons and daughters from this volunteer experience, the students left with a light-hearted wave and a "Merry Christmas - Happy Holidays" wish.  Several available students asked to work again on New Year's Eve lunch, confirming that the experience had been a gentle, yet powerfully-moving force.  The words of the eminent professor and scholar Dr. Thomas Sergiovanni appropriately exemplify:  "The leadership that counts, in the end, is the kind that touches people differently...taps their emotions, appeals to their values and responds to their connections with other people.  It is a morally-based leadership - a form of stewardship" (Sergiovanni, Leadership as Stewardship: Who's Serving Who, 77).

On New Year's Eve Day, several brave students and their parents left Bethpage to cautiously weave on icy roads in cold temperatures to The Mercy Inn Soup Kitchen in Wyandanch.  Mrs. DeAngelis and her daughters Samantha and Nicolette stayed along with Alexa Gold, Simon Jambrone and Desiree Pendleton to prepare and serve lunch for others less fortunate. 

"We sometimes become so involved with our own lives in our own bubble that we forget to look around us," commented Mrs. DeAngelis as she wrapped utensils in napkins for the guests to arrive.  "Thank you for the opportunity to give back."

It is the poignant realization that we all have the ability to make a difference, be it considered small or significant, that brought these students and parents together.  Gratitude for the many blessings we have coupled with the effort to brave cold, wind, ice to risk an unknown situation resulted in exchanging smiles, positive action and interaction with a new-found empowerment.   It certainly seems that 2010 is off to a strong start when parents, students, education and cooperation form to enrich community is possibly small, but profound ways.