Northport Students for 60,000 Help Others Get Through Coronavirus

NORTHPORT, NY — Northport High School’s Students for 60,000 discovered their mission to help those in need has been evermore prevalent during the new coronavirus pandemic. While the needs that students have been accustomed to addressing have changed drastically, the club adapted to provide necessities to essential workers and food pantries across Long Island, according to the Northport-East Northport Union Free School District.

"We find ourselves in difficult times," club adviser Darryl St. George said in a news release. "Never, has the SF60K mission: 'Helping those in need' been more urgent. Just as we were ramping up preparations for our April service trip to Kermit, West Virginia, the country began to respond to the growing outbreak of the virus."

He said it became abundantly clear the team’s trip would at the very least be postponed as students transitioned to online instruction. However, the club continued to try and fulfill its mission. Members moved quickly to assist William Slagle, Emily Kovaks, Sam Rosenfeld-McMahon and the Key Club to transport food from the Northport High School food pantry to the food pantry at Saint Anthony's of Padua's Outreach Center in East Northport. Students also worked alongside Superintendent Robert Banzer, Board of Education Trustee Thomas Loughran, Mrs. Kovaks and Northport High School Principal Daniel Danbusky.

Following that endeavor, SF60K members began sending funds to its ongoing projects in Kenya, Nicaragua and West Virginia, and began organizing individual food drives for the food pantry at St. Hughes in Huntington Station.

Under the leadership of SF60K adviser Ms. Carlson, students also executed "Operation Easter Egg," where Northport students put together Easter baskets for 32 underprivileged children enrolled in the A.B.L.E. Families after-school program in West Virginia.

This week, students will be planning a virtual forum between the students of Tug Valley
High School in West Virginia and Northport High School students for sometime mid-May.

"During this time, it can seem like we are all alone, but it is the example set forth by the Students for 60,000 and their unwavering commitment to helping those in need, even as they struggle with their own needs that we are reminded that people care and in that we recognize we are not alone," St. George said. "It is through the students’ altruism that we should take heart and have faith that this too shall pass, and we will come out of this kinder, stronger and better."