School Soccer Stars Score, Raise $1K+ For Health Care Workers

MASTIC BEACH, NY — High school athletes scored in a big way recently as they banded together to help healthcare workers battling the new coronavirus.

The William Floyd High School girls’ and boys’ varsity soccer teams raised $1,145 to purchase meals for local first responders and healthcare workers on the front lines of the pandemic. Coaches Kaleigh Sidaras and Paul Paniccia said they reached out to their teams — and the students and their families stepped up in a big way.

The proceeds were used to provide meals to Shirley Community Ambulance, the Mastic Ambulance Company, the Mastic Beach Ambulance Company, healthcare workers in the COVID-19 units at Stony Brook Medicine and North Shore Hospital, officers with the Suffolk County Police Department’s 7th Precinct, as well as facilities workers for the William Floyd School District, a release for the district said.

“These kids continue to inspire me and make us proud every day,” said Coach Sidaras, who is also a fourth-grade teacher at John S. Hobart Elementary School. “They’re so understanding of the fact that there’s something bigger than themselves out there and giving back is so important. I couldn’t be more proud to be a teacher and a coach in this community with all the good that is happening in such a hard time."

Locally, the teams partnered with TJ’s Hero Shops in Mastic Beach and Mama Lisa Pizza Express in Mastic to purchase the meals; the district also gave special thanks to Kim Vlacich, a team mother for both squads, for helping to organize the fundraiser.