_____________ ROCKVILLE CENTRE ____________
law enforcement is honored
Kids get spooky in mural contest
Page 10
Page 13
Vol. 36 No. 43
oCToBER 23 - 29, 2025
1282178
HERALD $1.00
RVC Scout earns every merit badge full pursuit of the entire Scouting America badge catalog, from common ones, like CampAaliyah Corley, a 16-year-old ing and First Aid, to more Scout from Troop 163 in Rock- obscure ones, such as Nuclear ville Centre, has earned every Science and Bugling. “There are so many subjects one of the 139 merit badges offered by Scouting America that I would never even think for boys and girls, a rare about otherwise,” she said. achievement that is the result “Like surveying, welding, mobile selling, of years of perseawareness, survivverance, curiosity al, metal work — and service. She is like, a lot of stuff the first girl on — and you just get Long Island, and a survey of each of the second in New these things.” York state, to mark Corley worked the accomplishwith a number of ment. merit badge counCorley is origiselors, who guide nally from Brazil, Scouts in meeting but moved with her AAlIyAh CoRlEy the badges’ requiref a m i l y t o L o n g Scout, ments. Some of her Island four years Troop 163 counselors are ago and is homefrom Rockville Censchooled. She began her scouting jour ney tre, which led her to Troop 163. after a video game sparked her She was invited to join in 2022, at which point she had already curiosity. “When I was in Brazil, I used earned 36 merit badges. “She’s been terrific, kind of to play League of Legends,” she said, referring to Riot Games’ like a role model for the other popular multiplayer online Scouts,” Steve Bo, scoutmaster game, “and one of the charac- of Troop 163, said. “You might ters is a Scout. So I was curious think that someone who’s tryabout what it was like being a ing to achieve something so big, get so many merit badges, Scout.” Corley’s interest grew into a Continued on page 6
By KElSIE RADZISKI
kradziski@liherald.com
Tim Baker/Herald
‘Fall’ing through the village Siblings Maeve McDonough, 7, and Owen McDonough, 4, dressed up in their best Halloween costumes for the Rockville Centre Chamber of Commerce Little Town Fall Festival on Oct. 18. Story, more photos, Page 3.
Molloy professor leads DNA research in ocean conservation By WIll ShEElINE wsheeline@liherald.com
At Molloy University, environmental science professor Liz Suter is at the forefront of a genomic revolution in marine research, using environmental DNA to decode the hidden life of oceans and reshape how scientists monitor ecosystems, from Long Island bays to global waters. Suter, associate professor of environmental science at Molloy, who also conducts research at the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at
Stony Brook University, has spent more than a decade studying how traces of genetic material left behind by marine organisms can unlock hidden details about ocean ecosystems. She delved into the rapidly evolving science of environmental DNA, or eDNA, at the Friends of the Bay’s Brews and News event at the Oyster Bay Brewing Company. “The ocean is a soup of its resident species’ genetic material,” she told attendees at the Oct. 15 event. “The concept behind environmental Continued on page 10
I
f I could do it, I could also show other Scouts that they could do it too.