Roslyn High School clubs donate $4,200 to non-profit after-school program

Bill San Antonio

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Roslyn High School Assistant Principal Jay Pilnick and senior Sahil Anand, president of the school’s Organization of Class Councils, arrived at the after-school non-profit Concerned Citizens for Roslyn Youth office last Wednesday bearing gifts. 

The two donated a $4,200 check raised by Roslyn High School’s clubs to the organization, which struggled to find a source of funding to cover costs over the first few months of 2015, prior to the start of new contracts with Nassau County. 

“We wish we could have done it sooner,” Pilnick said. 

Janice Miles, the organization’s executive director, said she has encountered difficulties in securing funding through government entities due to a stigma that Roslyn is an affluent community with a limited population of students that could be considered “at-risk.”

But since the organization’s founding in 1979, Miles said Concerned Citizens for Roslyn Youth has received the assistance of the Roslyn School District as well as area benefactors supportive of its mission to offer after-school and summer activities and jobs programs for middle and high school-aged students.  

“It can be difficult to level the playing field when there is so much wealth and you do see a disparity between different populations,” she said. “Roslyn has become a very diverse communities, and even though you have all these incorporated villages, there is still some segregation that comes about. You have to work hard to get that support.”

“I’m just thankful that the people in the district over the years, Jay and Art [Mandel, Roslyn High School’s director of guidance], they understand that,” she added.  

Pilnick said Miles approached the district requesting financial help in late September, whereupon Anand organized a meeting between club leaders to brainstorm fundraising efforts.  

The Organization of Class Councils, which annually donates to various charitable causes, then decided to match any funding generated by Roslyn High School clubs in October and November, Anand said. 

“I think that as a community, we can all come together during the year,” he said. “Giving back to this great program was really important to us. It really makes a difference in the lives of students and that’s a main goal of the OCC and to me personally.”

Roslyn clubs collected $2,100 through bake sales and other initiatives, which Anand said was doubled through funds the Organization of Class Councils had on hand and will be replenished during future fundraising efforts this year.

“They outdid themselves,” Miles said. “They helped us to at least sustain ourselves in our bridge period.”

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