CONGRATULATIONS - TWO 2013 INTEL FINALISTS IN SMITHTOWN

Two students from Long Island were selected as Intel finalists. Finalists Mayuri Sridhar and Michael Zhang will be go to Washingington DC where they will compete in the last phase of the competition.

The Intel STS recognizes and rewards 300 students, as well as their schools, as semifinalists each year. From that select pool, 40 finalists are then invited to Washington, DC in March to undergo final judging, display their work to the public, meet with notable scientists, and compete for $630,000 in awards, including the top award of $100,000.

Mayuri SridharMichael ZhangSridhar, Mayuri (Kings Park High School) 
Kings Park, New York 
Computational Analysis of the DNA-Binding Mechanism of the p53 Tumor Suppressor and its Inactivation through the R249S Mutation

Zhang, Michael (Smithtown High School East) 
Saint James, New York 
Role-Inducted Perspective Visual Behavior during Scene Free-Viewing

Information Wanted: Fatal Hit and Run in Centereach

Suffolk County Crime Stoppers and Suffolk County Police Sixth Squad detectives are seeking the public’s help to identify and locate the driver of the vehicle involved in a fatal hit-and-run with a pedestrian in Centereach.

At approximately 12:45 a.m. on December 21, 2012, Michael Van Hulse, 29, of Centereach (pictured here), was walking eastbound on Park Street, west of Rustic Road, when an unknown type of vehicle struck him, knocking him to the ground. Van Hulse suffered life-threatening injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the vehicle did not stop and did not report this incident. Police believe the vehicle involved was painted a metallic red and may have sustained damage to the windshield and the black plastic panels on the underside of the vehicle. 

Anyone with information about this crime, or the vehicle involved, is asked to call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-220-TIPS.  All calls will be kept confidential. Suffolk County Crime Stoppers offers a cash reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to an arrest. 

 Authority: D/Sgt. Michael Fitzharris      CC# 12-776894

 Sixth Squad Detectives                        CW# 13-012/JJ  

Exercises with No Impact

By Kia Edwards

Some people find that after a great workout, they feel pain in places they didn’t plan for and promptly decide that exercising is a dangerous task.  Exercises with no impact are beneficial because you can get the benefits of exercise without hurting your joints.  Individuals with arthritis and individuals who are obese may find no impact exercises to be particularly useful in helping them become healthier.  If you are following a low to no impact exercise regimen, make sure you incorporate resistance exercises to maintain or increase your bone density.

Swimming

Swimming is great exercise because it provides a full body workout with minimal impact on your body.  This is due to the fact that you are almost weightless when you are in the water.  Swimming works out your back, legs, arms and core muscles and to top it all off, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) found that swimmers have half the risk of death when compared to inactive people.  Suddenly, exercise doesn’t seem so bad, does it?  

The Elliptical

The elliptical machine is great if you are trying to avoid joint pain that you may experience on a treadmill or while running outdoors.  The motion of the elliptical prevents you from stepping on hard surfaces.  As an added bonus, many ellipticals have arms that can be pushed and pulled during the workout.  This gives you the chance to work your arms out while giving your gams the chance to get ready for the summer. 

Stationary Bike

Stationary biking is great for three reasons- it’s low impact, just about everybody can do it and it’s a good calorie burner.  It’s easy on your knees but still gives your legs a great workout.  You can increase the intensity by increasing resistance as you get stronger.  Biking is a great way to get the heart pumping and improve your cardiovascular strength.  

Resistance Training

Strength training is a great way to work out without stressing the joints.  Resistance exercise increases bone density, which fights against osteoporosis (a big issue for us women).  It helps you maintain muscle mass, which helps in the never ending war against slowing metabolism.  Resistance training doesn’t have to be done with weights.  You can use your body weight or resistance tubes if you find dumbbells and kettle bells a bit too much to handle.  

Add in any of these workouts to your fitness regimen to experience some great health benefits without being afraid of joint pain.  

Kia Edwards is a certified personal trainer and nutrition specialist who lives in New York City. She studied French and Economics at Colgate University, spent 15 years as a high-level competitive gymnast and 6 years as a gymnastics coach.  Her business, La Fortesse At Home Fitness Training, helps clients get healthy with simple at home exercises and nutrition counseling. www.LaFortesse.com 

Kings Park HS Student Kristina Dejuri's "There Were Four" A Winner In NAfME Competition

Kristina DejuriKings Park High School Junior, Kristina Dejuri, submitted an original musical composition to the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) “Call for Compositions” Contest and was selected as one of the composers whose work will be performed at the annual NAfME All-Eastern United States Conference.  A panel of composition professors and members of the NAfME Council for Music Composition adjudicated Kristina’s piece, “There Were Four”, and they selected her piece for performance at the Young Composer Concert on April 5, 2013 in Hartford, Connecticut.  This is a very prestigious honor for a young composer, especially being that only 14 students were selected from the entire Eastern Division, which consists of all states in the Northeast, from Virginia to Maine.

John Feal - An Everyday Hero

By Chris Biancaniello

 “A hero is somebody who understands the responsibility that comes with his own freedom”- Bob Dylan

John FealOn September 12th, 2001 Nesconset resident John Feal answered the call to go to New York City and help with the debris at Ground Zero. The construction worker and veteran found himself working 12-hour shifts to help in whatever way he could.

On September 17th, 2001 a 4-ton steal beam came crashing down on his left foot. What happened next would forever change the course of Feal’s life. He soon learned that part of his foot would have to be amputated.

As if that wasn’t enough to overcome, the incident wouldn’t be covered by the victim relief fund provided by Congress because it happened more than 96 hours after September 11, the cut off for eligibility. John Feal was a day late according to those rules.

The next five years of his life would include multiple surgeries, bills piling up and post traumatic stress disorder. Feal decided to fight back and took his case to the courts where he would eventually win his lawsuit. “If you think you’re right, fight till the end. I fought, I got my own benefits- I don’t think I’ve won, I think I got what I deserved.” Feal means every word of what he says and doesn’t waste time getting to the point.

I think it is safe to say that most people would have stopped there, but John Feal is not most people. In 2005 he created the “FealGood Foundation”, a foundation whose mission is to assist anyone directly affected by 9/11. Feal took it personally when he was denied his benefits. He had nothing to prove, but having been hurt and being forced to deal with the bureaucracy before getting what he needed, gave him the opportunity to fully understand what responders had to deal with to get what they needed.

It wouldn’t be long before he would be roaming the halls of Congress, tracking down congressmen and women, lobbying for the Zadroga Bill. This bill provides 9/11 first responders with health benefits for anything they may have acquired while working on site.

Some say the FealGood Foundation “re-wrote the book on lobbying”. Feal took Congress by storm, he threatened to park busses outside the airport to prevent congress from leaving (it was around Christmas time). He brought victims with oxygen tanks and wheel chairs and  well-spoken knowledgeable first responders with him to get his point across- he wasn’t going to stop until the deal was done.

Feal held strong in the presence of America’s most intimidating elected officials, and working with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), he was instrumental in getting 4.3 billion dollars in Federal Aid to 9/11 first responders.  Dozens of cancers and other diseases have been recognized as having been caused by 9/11. If you ask Feal about the Zadroga bill, he’ll say he got too much credit and the attention he received was only because he was still there in the eleventh hour.

Glenn Klein and John FealEven still, he’s not nearly done yet. Joined by the FealGood Foundation’s vice president, a 20 year retired NYPD veteran Glenn Klein, the two explained there was still much more to be done. Klein was a member of the Emergency Services Unit, a unit responsible for everything from SWAT to scuba and he was there when the second tower collapsed. He lost 14 members of his unit.

Klein, like Feal suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, and has had his fair share of troubles since 9/11 including having cancerous polyps removed from his colon. The FealGood Foundation helped him fight for his Social Security Disability benefits.

For Feal and Klein, “everyday is 9/11”. They’re still in fact fighting battles that were caused by it, and they’re fighting those battles every single day. In the past week alone they attended 2 funerals, marking what Feal guesses is about their 65th funeral since 2001.“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t worry that I’m going to be next,” says Klein.

What angers them the most is the lack of response and bureaucratic nightmares that prevented things from getting done to help families. “Since 9/11 thousands have gotten sick and 1,300 have passed away. You could be working at Home Depot, have a box fall on your head, and get workman’s comp faster than a 9/11 first responder who came to the aid of this country and is basically a hero.” Feal doesn’t blame people for forgetting this fact. He understands the need to get on with everyday life, but he knows his battle isn’t over. In fact, if you ask him, he’ll tell you that he is only at the 30 yard line with 70 left to go.

Both Klein and Feal have grown anything but complacent. They recently decided to help get involved with Sandy relief efforts and have been responsible for helping a number of families return to normalcy. The foundation is also raising funds for Nesconset’s 9/11 Memorial Park which lists the names of first-responders who have passed due to 9/11 related illnesses.

Feal’s mission doesn’t have a clear ending and perhaps many people should be thankful for that fact. In 2007 Feal donated a kidney to a complete stranger. Feal says that “when I die, I don’t want my name to be on the tombstone, or the year I was born, or the year I died. I just want it to say ‘he tried’ and let everybody else figure out who’s buried there.”