Rockville Centre
HERALD First responders take precautions
Doctors shift to telemedicine
Food pantry changes model
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VOL. 31 NO. 14
APRIL 2 - 8, 2020
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Making masks by the hundreds Volunteers put sewing skills to use to help protect nurses about the nurses we knew who were directly affected, and wondered how we could help,” Early last month, two groups MaryLou Laurie said. “We went of moms were busy sewing cos- from sewing sequins onto costumes for their tumes to making daughters’ Red and surgical masks and Blue competition at caps in the course South Side High of a month.” School. For the past Laurie has two week, these women daughters at the have joined forces to high school, and create fabric masks sewed costumes for for local health care the Blue team, while professionals. In her cousin Amy about a week, 60 Sherlock sewed for women in Rockville the Red team. The Centre had sewn t wo wo m e n a n d more than 500 their respective sewmasks. ing groups collaboNot long after the rated, researching annual competition designs and fabrics that has been a for masks. Since Rockville Centre each g roup had tradition for more already developed a than 100 years, the system, they simply women kept their moved from coscontacts a n d TRICIA tumes to masks, momentum going, MAHONEY d iv i d i n g u p t h e shifting their focus tasks. Nurse and SSHS from sewing decoraAccording to tive sequins to mak- graduate Laurie, some voluning practical protecteers wash, trace tive gear. and cut the fabric “After seeing more and more and deliver it to others who do news reports about the lack of the sewing, while others create personal protective equipment for nurses, we started thinking CONTINUED ON PAGE 7
By JILL NOSSA
jnossa@liherald.com
I
Courtesy Doug Z. Goodstein
THE SCHAEFER FAMILY waved at passersby during a community car parade celebrating the final spinal tap and chemotherapy treatment for 5-year-old Aiden Schaefer, far left.
Five-year-old celebrates last cancer treatment with parade By BRIANA BONFIGLIO bbonfiglio@liherald.com
After three years of spinal taps and chemotherapy treatments for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, 5-year-old Aiden Schaefer, of Rockville Centre, underwent his final procedure on March 25. It was a day that his parents, Denise and Patrick, had been looking forward to for a while. They had planned to bring cupcakes to thank the nurses at Mount Sinai Hospi-
tal in Manhattan. Aiden would give them all high-fives one last time. And his twin brother, Mason, would give him kisses at the elevator and say, “I’ll make your booboo better,” like he always did. The family would go out to dinner, and have a gathering with close friends and family to celebrate. But all that was upended by coronavirus restrictions. Aiden was allowed to have only one parent with him for his last treatment, so it was
just Denise and Aiden that day. “We were all supposed to go in together, and had matching shirts,” Denise said. “This was his last [spinal tap] out of 26. It took so long, and we w e r e d e v a s t a t e d . H e ’d endured so much.” “We waited three years for that moment,” Patrick added. Judy Schaefer, Aiden and Mason’s grandmother, knew this treatment was a huge CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
never dreamed that the woman who made my Red and Blue costume would be making surgical masks for me in the middle of a pandemic.