Friday, March 15, 2024
Vol. 84, No. 11
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SERVING BETHPAGE, OLD BETHPAGE, AND PLAINVIEW
MacArthur junior wins prestigious competition
School fundraiser held for Bethpage girl battling cancer BY GARY SIMEONE
General Douglas MacArthur High School junior Melody Hong won first place in the prestigious Long Island Brain Bee. She was joined by her science teachers Mr. Zausin, left, and Dr. Friedman, right.
Photo courtesy Levittown Public Schools
BY GARY SIMEONE It has been a whirlwind of a month for Melody Hong, a junior student at MacArthur High School. The precocious sixteen year-old earned first-place honors in the annual Long Island Brain Bee Science competition, which took place at Hofstra University earlier this month. The competition exposes high school students to studies of the human brain and aims to motivate them
to pursue careers in neurology, neurosurgery, psychology and neuroscience. Hong said that she entered the nationwide competition last year at the request of her science research teachers. “They knew I had a strong interest in biology and computational biology in particular, and thought I’d be a perfect candidate for this type of competition,” said Hong. “I ended up placing in third place last year
in the Long Island region and that really motivated me to try again this year.” Hong’s perseverance paid off and after completing the necessary criteria for the competition, she earned first-place honors this time around. The Long Island Brain Bee took place on March 2nd at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine, located on the campus of Hofstra UniverSee page 10
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It was a special day on Thursday, February 15, at Bethpage High School as a little girl from the community was honored for her bravery by the students. Lia Esposito, a first grader at Charles Campagne elementary schoolwho was recently diagnosed with cancer, spoke to students about her battle with the disease and it’s impact on her life. “Lia has been amazing throughout this whole process,” said Josephine Esposito, Lia’s mother. “Even with this devastating diagnosis and over twenty-five weeks of intense chemotherapy, she’s still dancing, doing cartwheels, full of energy and overall happy. We’re praying that by the end of December she’ll be done with the chemo and everything will be clear on all her scans.” Chris DeStefano, an art teacher and SPEC (Students Putting an End to Cancer) adviser at Bethpage High School, said that when the club learned about Lia’s story, they immediately wanted to get involved. “We held a meeting about what we should do for her and came up with an idea for a T-shirt fundraiser in the district to raise money for local charities” said DeStefano. “Our club made these shirts, which were sold to members of the community, and we ended up raising over sixteen hundred dollars.” All of the proceeds that were raised through the fundraising campaignwere donated to Lia’s family to help with hospital expenses and to organizations such as the American Cancer Society and Cohen’s Children Medical Center. “We ended giving a thousand dollars to Lia’s family to help with medical bills and the other six-hundred dollars was donated to ACS and Cohen’ Children’s Hospital,” said DeStefano. Lia, who is a bright young girl, was diagnosed with kidney cancer in June 2023 after complaining of stomach pains and discomfort. “Being a registered nurse, my alarm bells went off right away because I knew something wasn’t right,” said Esposito. We ended up taking her to Cohen’s hospital to have imaging and tests done and that’s when we heard the news from the doctors that no parent wants to hear. Your child has cancer.” See page 10
Columbiettes celebrate Valentines Day PAGE 11 Battle of the Classes returns to BHS PAGE 8