______________ VALLEY STREAM _____________
HERALD District 13 celebrates unity
Bridge authority has new member
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VOL. 35 NO. 45
OCTOBER 31 - NOVEMBER 6, 2024
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UBS Arena hosts $180,000 charity game $171,000 for last year’s tournament. The 3 Keys Cup tournament is now the largest source Spor ts can provide life- of fundraising revenue for the changing opportunities for organization. Consistency in hosting hockyoung athletes, opening doors for them that may otherwise be ey clinics for local youth is closed. The 43 Oak Foundation, something Toskos believes makes UBS and the a charity that helps Islanders’ partnerdevelop underpriviship with 43 Oak leged and minority Foundation work youth through best. hockey, hosted its As head coach third annual 3 Keys of the hockey team Cup charity hockey at Don Bosco Pretour nament at paratory High Elmont’s UBS School in Ramsey, Arena last week to N ew Je r s e y, h i s help support the SEAN GREVy alma mater, often organization’s mis- Founder, finds himself rink43 Oak Foundation sion. side. Whether he’s The tournament, coaching, cheering on Oct. 24, raised more than $180,000 thanks to on his kids or helping out with nine financial institutions that clinics, he said, athletes from took part — UBS, BlackRock, other teams have recognized PIMCO, JP Morgan Asset Man- him from 43 Oak Foundation agement, Franklin Templeton, clinics no matter the location. “That becomes more personMFS Investments, and a joint team comprising Lord Abbett, al,” Toskos said. “So it’s special and it’s great that we’re raising PGIM and First Eagle. “They were all excited to be money for the foundation. But asked back and play the tourna- it becomes even more of a perment,” Greg Toskos, UBS’s sonal touch when kids recognize some of the things that head of national sales, said of the eight teams, put together we’re doing in order to play at by the financial institutions, some of the facilities that we’re which helped raise roughly Continued on page 4
By NICOLE WAGNER
nwagner@liherald.com
T
oday is a real testament to taking action.
Courtesy Metro Creative
district 24’s barbecued chicken may have been contaminated with listeria, and there has been a nationwide recall of some meat and poultry products, but no students have reported illnesses.
Did listeria find its way into V.S. District 24 lunchrooms? By JUAN LASSO jlasso@liherald.com
The barbecued chicken option served at Valley Stream District 24 cafeterias on Sept. 24 may have contained listeria, a common and potentially fatal foodborne pathogen. The first warning came straight from the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Oct. 9, announcing a nationwide recall of BrucePac ready-to-eat meat and poultry products. The district’s barbecued chicken meals represented a drop in the vast ocean of tainted products — totaling 12 million pounds — pulled from grocery stores, wholesale clubs, restaurants, and schools in over a dozen
states. But it wasn’t until two days after the recall that Whitsons Culinary Group, the district’s food vendor, informed Superintendent Unal Karakas about contamination in their packaged barbecued chicken meals. That same day, Karakas gave the unnerving notice to parents. In his letter, he assured them that the district’s cafeterias had discontinued serving the meal and purged any remains from its storage rooms. “We have received no reports of illness within our district,” Karakas said in a statement. “Whitsons has assured us that, at this time, there have been no reports of adverse Continued on page 24