__________________ Merrick _________________
HERALD Yianna Foufas earns state title
outside readers visit Chatteron
Prep Academy creates fun games
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Vol. 26 No. 7
$1.00 $1.00
FEBRUARY 9 - 15, 2023
Bellmore-Merrick wrestlers learn basics in youth program Bulldogs offer alternative to team sports — John Hamilton and Ray Adam, who both have ties to Bellmore-Merrick — approached Traditional team sports may her and asked her to start anothnot be for every young athlete, er one. and the Bellmore-Merrick BullSix years ago, the Bulldogs dogs youth wrestling organiza- were founded as a charter wrestion understands that. Its admin- tling program under the auspicistrators and es of the Long coaches say that Island Wrestling being part of the Association. It has Bulldogs promotes become a feeder strength and charprogram for wresacter — on and off tling in the Bellthe mat — and premore-Merrick Cenpares both male tral High School and female wresDistrict, and what tlers for a future in young Bulldo gs the sport. learn, Marine said, Olivia Marine, a prepares them for self-described matches in middle wrestling mom, olIVIA MARINE school and high wife and daughter, Bulldogs wrestling school. runs the program, director Under her direcand has been torship, the proinvolved in the gram has two head sport for years. Her children are coaches, Steve Romano and older and are not part of the Jason Keshinova. Romano focusBulldogs, and she said she leads es primarily on younger wresthe program out of pure love for tlers, in first through third wrestling. grades, and Keshinova coaches Years back, Marine said, the older ones, fourth- through there was a different youth wres- sixth-graders. tling group in Bellmore-Merrick, “The younger group will the Tornadoes, but it folded. learn basic techniques,” Marine With the community left pro- explained. “They learn the rules gram-less, Marine, who lives in of wrestling. They learn the Merrick, said that two National commitment that it takes to be a Wrestling Hall of Fame coaches Continued on page 2
By JoRDAN VAlloNE jvallone@liherald.com
I
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
t’s really just such a great builder of character for everyone.