MIDDLE ISLAND CIVIC ASSOCIATION
Thursday, December 21st, 2017…7:00PM
Monthly Meeting Notice
Our next MICA meeting will be held on Thursday, December 21st, 2017 in the first floor Clemens Room of our beautiful LONGWOOD PUBLIC LIBRARY at 800 Middle Country Road at 7:00PM. Please join us. Bring a neighbor!
MICA has “adopted” Blessings In A Backpack for our Holiday Outreach this year. Trish Ewald, the Longwood Chapter leader, will be our guest speaker. According to Trish:
“Blessings in a Backpack is a national nonprofit organization designed specifically to provide weekend meals to underprivileged children. Each Friday identified children go home with a Backpack that contains 8 food items (2 breakfast, 2 lunch, 2 dinner, & 2 snacks). An average backpack contains an oatmeal packet, and a Belvita bar, a box of mac and cheese (covers lunch for Sat and Sun), a Progresso soup, and a chicken noodle soup, a bag of pretzels and fruit cup. All 7 items are about $4 (Long Island prices are higher than national averages). So, for $4 a child eats for a weekend, $20 feeds a child for a month of weekends & $150 feeds a child for a year of weekends.
Though we are a national organization, each chapter is fully responsible to raise all of their own funds, shop for the food items, pack their own backpacks and deliver them to each campus. Our Longwood chapter is currently sending home 360 backpacks each weekend. Our weekly expenses are $1400. We have approx 9200 kids in our district and roughly 10% of them would really benefit from our program. The harsh reality is there are hundreds of kids still on the waiting list. I’m thrilled that our local chapter, with about 10-15 people, continue to work hard to make a difference.”
We will collect CASH and CHECK donations for BIAB at our December meeting. The MICA Board has also voted to support two students for a year at a total of $300 from our treasury. We hope members will contribute enough to support a third student for a full year.
Homebuilder Lou Castellano, of the Castel Group, will also discuss plans for houses on a 10 acre parcel on Church Lane in Middle Island. The current A1 zoning allows 7 single family homes on that parcel and requires a recharge basin. Mr. Castellano has said he wants to build four homes, which would not require a sump, and will preserve much of the parcel as open space, perhaps dedicating it to the Town of Brookhaven. Lou said he will present several options for configuring the houses on the property. Some local residents hope to have the entire 10 acres preserved as open space and have undertaken an online petition urging local officials to purchase the property.
As usual, SC Police Dept 6th Precinct reps will also attend and answer questions.