Community Corner
Young Adults Volunteer To Make Valentine's Day Cards at Library
A group of more than 30 young adults met at the main branch of the Smithtown Special Library District to create Valentine's Day Cards for residents of St. Catherine of Siena Nursing Home.
More than 30 young adults volunteered at the main branch of the Smithtown Special Library District on Monday evening to make Valentine’s Day cards for residents of St. Catherine of Siena Nursing Home.
“The valentines are being taken to St. Catherine’s Nursing Home by two of my high school senior volunteers,” said Sheila Doherty, head of young adult services at the library. “We can’t make enough for everyone, but we make a lot. They are here for an hour, so they make at least five each. We have a lot of the same volunteers come back time after time.”
The volunteers, grades six through 12, had the option of making three different types of valentines.
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“They can do a magic scratch card and scratch whatever they want on it for Valentine’s Day. They can make a card and decorate it with a lot of stickers. They also can do a magic stained glass card,” Doherty said.
Doherty’s assistant, Arnabi Varshney, brought her sister, Manasvi, who made pink and red magic stained glass cards. While high school seniors Jennifer Uliano and Kaitlyn Fleissner created matching magic scratch cards and have been volunteering at the library for many years, because they enjoy helping people.
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“We’ve been coming here a few years. I come just to help – it makes people’s days better,” Uliano said.
Fleissner agreed. “I do it, because it makes people feel better,” she said.
This was also the case for eighth grader Ryan Powderly-Gross, who created a card surrounded by friends. “I’ve volunteered at least three times before,” he said.
Other students donated their time to receive an hour of community service credit while making others happy.
“I’m trying to get enough community service credits to make National Junior Honor Society by seventh grade,” said sixth grader Dylan Flynn.
Seventh graders Kerri Walsh and Kim Lawless also came to do community service for their church and created red, white and pink cards and scratched X’s and O’s into their magic scratch cards. “It’s for our church the Holy Cross,” Lawless said.
“We are doing community service for our religion group,” Walsh said. “We usually make them every year with names we already have, but this time we wanted to come here.”
