_________________ bellmore ________________
HERALD Hit the mat with the Bulldogs
Casino plans up for debate
Many honored at chamber dinner
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Vol. 26 No. 7
$1.00 $1.00
FEBRUARY 9 - 15, 2023
Yianna Foufas earns state title Bellmore-Merrick wrestlers break barriers in male-dominated sport Foufas placed first in the 114pound weight class. “All of the girls were very Yianna Foufas, a junior at good and strong,” she said of her Wellington C. Mepham High c o m p e t i t o r s. “ I w a s ve r y School, captured a state title in impressed with everyone’s work wrestling at the first New York ethic on the mat.” State Public High School AthletShe defeated the 10th-ranked ic Association Girls Wrestling wrestler in the nation in her Invitational last weight class, 2-0, in month in Syracuse. the finals, scoring Foufas, 16, said she with just 16 sechoped her success onds left in what would inspire was a highly anticother girls to get ipated and competinvolved in maleitive match. dominated sports. “We are The USA Wresextremely proud of tling Girls High KEN RICHARDS Yianna for all she School Develop- Mepham wrestling has accomment Committee coach plished,” Mepham re c e n t ly re c o g coach Ken Richnized New York as ards said. “Yianna the 37th state to host a sanc- has worked tremendously hard tioned high school wrestling in the wrestling room and in the tournament for girls. off-season to get where she is Foufas isn’t the only female today. It’s great to see hard work wrestler in the Bellmore-Mer- pay off.” rick Central High School DisFoufas and Robles have comtrict. Talia Robles, also of peted in other girls-only tournaMepham, and Gabriella Schecht- ments in the past. In December man, of Kennedy High, are two 2021, they were the first female more trailblazers, and all three wrestlers in Mepham’s history competed in the Syracuse invita- to compete in an all-girls tournational on Jan. 27, alongside more ment, at Copiague High School. than 200 other female wrestlers Foufas previously told the from across the state, 33 of them from Long Island. Continued on page 2
By RoKSANA AMID ramid@liherald.com
S
he’s always seeking the highest challenge.
Courtesy Ryann Jordan
RYANN JoRDAN, A senior at Calhoun High School, founded the organization ‘For That Time’ to help women in poverty obtain feminine hygiene products.
‘For That Time’ helps women in poverty across Long Island
Organization provides basic necessities to those in need By JoRDAN VAlloNE jvallone@liherald.com
When Ryann Jordan, a senior at Calhoun High School in Merrick, learned that there are countless women who can’t afford or don’t have access to basic necessities, like feminine hygiene products, she quickly sprang into action.
Realizing that something needed to be done, Jordan, 18, founded the organization “For That Time” to address these needs and make a difference in her local community. Her sister, Lindsay, a student at Cornell University, told her that many women living in poverty across the U.S. struggle to find not only food and other items from pan-
tries, but also hygiene products. “In one of her classes, she told me that they talked about period poverty, and I hadn’t really heard about it before,” Jordan said. “I looked more into it and noticed that it was like a really big problem in the world, and it wasn’t really being shared, to my knowlContinued on page 4