High School Senior Community Awards

Emily Feil (2024)

In the spring of 2023, Emily began meeting with an Alzheimer's patient, as a reading and writing guide. They have since formed an unbreakable bond through their weekly visits. Emily has learned a great deal from this relationship and values the community service she has performed. Aside from visiting the nursing home weekly, Emily has been instrumental in the installation of a new StoryWalk with the local library. This unique project allows kids to combine reading and exercise to walk along a path at Shell Creek Park and read along the way. Emily has also been a key developer of the Long Beach Little Pantry which involves collecting food donations and restocking the pantry for the first month. Since the opening month, Emily has created a schedule for other volunteers to make sure the pantry is stocked. Emily exemplifies the pillars of the SHIFT Foundation, and she looks forward to finding new ways to make a positive difference. 

8th Grade Community Awards

Giuliana Musico, Sydney Olivo, Victoria Sinnona (2024) 

Giuliana, Sydney, and Victoria completed their community service project at the Long Beach Public Library. The students organized, planned, and hosted multiple free sessions where young children could participate in arts and crafts and story time. Going above and beyond, they not only hosted one session, but four very successful sessions, each with a different craft and story. Giuliana, Sydney, and Victoria thought of a need in the community and addressed it by offering their time and creativity to young children of the community. 

Jase Weiner (2024)

Jase is passionate about sports. He took it upon himself to post flyers and advertise on social media how to donate used sports equipment to his collection drive. Jase's drive was a huge success collecting all sorts of equipment from many different people. The equipment was donated to the Long Beach Recreation Center to be used for sports programs where a child may not have the proper equipment needed to participate. By having equipment readily available it makes the sports kids are able to play equitable for all. Jase saw a need in his community, organized a drive, and gave many children the opportunity to have the necessary equipment to play various sports. 

Zack Brymer, John Lovato Ramos, Isaac Reyes Banegas (2023)

Zack, John, and Isaac completed their community service project creating backpacks complete with several essential supplies at a local temple. The backpacks were then brought to the Long Beach Police Department where they will be used to help struggling and homeless people in the community. The three young men took it a step further and volunteered their time to clean up and organize various parts of the temple that needed attention. Zack, John, and Isaac saw something that needed to get done, and they took it upon themselves to take positive action. 

Alexis McCormick & Adriana Klarikaitis (2022)

Alexis and Adriana completed their community service project of hosting a dog toy donation drive for Posh Pets Animal Shelter in Long Beach, New York. They began by creating advertisements and gathering donations from members of their school community. The donation drive was a great success, but Alexis and Adriana did not stop there. The girls also presented an idea to the Student Organization of Long Beach Middle School to have a pretzel sale to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and each of them saw it through from start to finish. They stayed after school and sold pretzels to students and faculty members raising over three hundred dollars toward their charity of choice. Alexis and Adriana are driven and determined to make the world a better place. 

Patrick Harten (2021)

Patrick completed his community service project of hosting a toy drive for children in need. Patrick facilitated donations in the amount of over $500, and purchased toys from multiple retailers to maximize the amount of different toys he could buy. Patrick oversaw the entire process from start to finish where all toys were donated to Toys for Tots, a program run by the United States Marine Corps Reserve that distributes toys to families who cannot afford them. Patrick is a genuine human and his compassion for families does not go unnoticed. 

Nate Stark (2021)

Nate completed his community service project of hosting a food drive for the people in his community. Nate created posters, facilitated a donation area in his school, and collected non-perishable food items for the Long Beach community during an especially tough time with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nate gathered all of the donations and personally dropped them off at the Long Beach Soup Kitchen. Nate is a true leader and is capable of doing great things. 

Jake Young (2020)

Jake completed his community service through multiple years of volunteering with the Little Saint Nick Foundation. He decided to take on this project during his free time and he has been named the Chapter Leader for New York State. Little Saint Nick is a foundation dedicated to easing the fear and anxiety of children in local hospitals. Every month for the last two years, Jake helped pack 850 gift bags containing a stuffed toy, coloring books and crayons for children. The first Friday of every month, Jake and his siblings dress in costumes and deliver boxes filled with gift bags to Cohen’s Children’s Hospital and the Winthrop Emergency and Recovery Department. Read more about Jake's work here. 

Max Cornell & Tyler Shammas (2019)

Max and Tyler completed their community service project of "Building Bookshelves to Help Elders."  They contacted a contractor who was willing to assist in the building of the bookshelves, located a business that donated the wood for the project, and found a nursing home and rehabilitation center that was in need of the bookshelves. They visited local libraries and acquired over twenty large print books to go on the bookshelves. “We helped make people’s lives a little bit better by just putting in some of our time.  Imagine what we could do with more people, and more time.”  

Mia Berseus (2019)

Mia completed her community service project, "African Library Project." She took on this project during her free time over spring break. She chose an organization to assist, planned out all of the details of how she would collect one thousand books, and set up a GoFundMe page to cover the shipping costs of all of the books to a school in Africa. Mia has a true desire to make a difference in this world.