Hackley Responds to Covid-19
Hackley families tell their stories of helping those in need
We asked for your stories
Many of you responded to the Service Team’s request to send in your personal Covid-19 stories. We have been so inspired to hear anecdotally how Hackley families have been on the front lines responding to this moment as well as volunteering with their children in myriad ways to help those in need.
Now it’s time to share those stories with the rest of the Hackley community.
Elliott Peterson ‘22
“While COVID -19 has changed the world- caused so much death and grief and remanded us to the confines of our homes; there has also been glimmers of sunshine and outpouring of compassion.
Elliott and I dug into my fabric stash and he has learned a few new skills. To date, we have given away 27 masks. Providing them to our neighbors, friends and we sent a few care packages. The “mask project” has been meaningful and I have no doubt that Elliott will be able to beautifully iron a dress shirt!!!”
- Kristin Peterson
The Joseph family
“Cole Joseph’s (’23) mother is an emergency room pediatrician at New York-Presbyterian Weil Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan. During the height of the crisis, to alleviate stress in the system, the pediatric ER changed their guidelines from seeing patients up to 21 years old to seeing patients up to 35 years old.”
- Matthew P. Joseph
Megan ‘22 and Allison ‘24 Chin
“Using photos taken by Megan ‘22 and digital artwork drawn by her sister, Allison ‘24, the Chin family has put together hundreds of care cards and handwritten well wishes in Chinese. These cards were sent to Homecrest Community Center. The group runs a “Stir Fry Meals on Wheels” program and the care cards will be delivered along with the meals to homebound Chinese senior citizens in Brooklyn.”
- Amy Wong
The Weinberger family
“As a family we got involved in raising money in our community to feed healthcare heroes on the frontline. We shot, scripted and edited a video which helped raise more than $150,000 and served more than 8000 meals.
Video was also featured on Fox 5 news in NYC.”
- Scott Weinberger
Jason Berger ‘22
“Our family lives in Queens and I am working as an essential care worker for Common Point Queens, providing food and child care for other essential workers' children. We are also working very hard to support the food needs of a growing senior community throughout Queens and into Nassau County. I would like to share with you what my son Jason Berger has done to contribute positively to our Queens community which has been hit particularly hard.
I recruited Jason to help in the Common Point Queens Food pantry when he is not in school. He also helps me deliver food every Sunday to Queens residents in need. His efforts have also included delivering holiday meals to homebound seniors and people quarantined with Covid-19. These meals included everything a person would need to participate in the holiday while confined to home. From March 16 - April 30th Common Point Queens distributed 58,692 meals in 45 neighborhoods. Jason’s willingness volunteer every week since the early days in this crisis has inspired his brother and cousins as well other families to volunteer on Sundays to help the Queens community in their time of need.”
- Melissa Algranati
The Rudge/Weale family
“Our family has been shopping for a few of our neighbors and we have provided a weekly lunch for the staff of a local nursing home with COVID residents for the past three weeks. I am a social worker for patients in hospice care — and am doing a lot of work with families around the added grief of not being able to hold the same rituals (funeral mass, memorial service, wake, visiting hours) for their loved one that were routine and possible pre-pandemic. I am also supporting patients and families as they cope with the forced isolation necessitated by the pandemic — caregivers without any help because their family can’t safely visit and families who can’t visit their loved ones in nursing homes or assisted living facilities. Definitely difficult to have a loved one on hospice in any circumstance — but this pandemic adds an added layer of grief and isolation. The stories of my patients and families definitely help my kids (Charlie and Elizabeth Rudge) stay grounded in our own blessings during a difficult time.”
- Sara Weale
Nolan Pilavsky 1M
“Our family decided to make people smile throughout our neighborhood. The kids cut and pasted “dad jokes” in cards, decorated the envelopes and dropped them off in our neighbors’ mailboxes. We’ve done 30 houses so far with the goal of reaching every house!”
- Mara Pilavsky
- Mara Pilavsky
Sabrina and Emily Reyes
“Emily (7th grade) and Sabrina (8th grade) wrote many letters to the nursing home residents in our area. They wrote notes saying that they were thinking of them and other positive sentiments since these residents are unable to receive visits from family and friends and are often confined to their rooms. These little notes made residents feel like they were in our thoughts even if they couldn’t be in our presence.”
- Michelle Reyes
Viviana Ayala
“I would love to include my mom, Viviana Ayala, who most people know from Extended Day where she has worked for the past 5 years. She is a warrior! Three days after my Dad, Ruben Ayala, passed away of the Coronavirus in his nursing home, she went back to work six days a week caring for others as an essential worker at an assisted living facility in Briarcliff. She is amazing and I am so in awe of her strength and proud of her generosity of spirit. We love her so much and pray she stays safe during this terrible pandemic!”
- Madeleine Lopez ‘97
The Alonso/Bileca family
“The Alonso/Bileca clan volunteers at our local Community Food Pantry every Monday. In addition to donating food and funds, we help set up the pantry, organize and distribute items to families in need, take time to chat with them, help take groceries to their cars, and clean up afterwards. There is so much need and we are proud to be learning from and with these wonderful families!”
- Steven Bileca
Aran Basu ‘25
Arjun and Sejal Virk ‘25
“Aran, Arjun and Sejal are helping drive to support healthcare workers in the area. Over spring break, a group of kids, as a part of the ICC organization (India Cultural Center*), came together to kick off a gofundme campaign and raised $1900 to provide relief packages of drinks and energy snacks to hospitals and ambulance service workers. Enclosed is coverage in a local paper, a video showcasing the efforts and a collage of the Hackley middle schoolers at work. It has been an enriching and rewarding experience for them! “
- Ratna Subrahmanyam-Basu and Monica Virk
Article:
Video:
https://spark.adobe.com/video/iqIcm3ZyvQF40
Remi Meyers ‘24
“Remi Myers is sewing masks for friends, relatives and neighbors. Since the pandemic started, she was at her machine sewing. However, after a few days her machine which she had for 6 years blew up! We ordered a new one and for the last few weeks she has resumed sewing on a completely new machine that she had to learn how to operate. Her masks are awesome and stylish. She adds an extra layer of soft material to give a second barrier so germs have even a harder time penetrating. Here she is in a picture sewing her friend Ashley a mask for her birthday.”
- Carol Meyers
The Beatty family
“I’ve been packaging toiletry kits and hygiene kits for distribution from The Sharing Shelf (https://www.sharingshelf.org/). These get distributed through social workers and various community centers in Westchester that are also providing food to families in need.”
- Karen Beatty
Alejandro Robinson ‘30
"Alejandro Robinson ’30 helped support Feeding Westchester’s Breakfast Bag campaign (https://feedingwestchester.org) by packing over 90 bags for distribution to food insecure children and seniors in the area. Each quart-sized bag was filled with a small cereal box, a juice box and a cereal bar. It was a fun and easy way to help the community AND put those math skills Mrs. Dean and Ms. Kalona have been working on this year with the second graders to the test!”
- Emily Washington
The Frey/Carrier family and faculty on-campus residents.
“Lola, my 5th grader, and I collected food from our neighbors to drop off at a food drive for the Community Food Pantry of Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown. Thanks to everyone’s generosity, we had a trunkful of healthy groceries to contribute from Hackley campus families!”
- Monica Carrier
Jaan Rothschild ‘23
“Jaan Rothschild (9th grade) has been helping some former teachers at his previous school (St. Bernard’s) as a virtual intern creating and posting tests and quizzes. Last week he started to build a website for his former coach’s charity whose mission is supplying sports equipment for children many of whom are affected by poverty and civil unrest in his coach's native country Uganda.”
- Sayada Rothschild
Brodi Cox ‘25
“Strings4Hope is a group I started several weeks ago. I recruited some friends and my younger siblings and we play live, virtual, strings concerts for COVID-19 patients and hospital staff. Most of the kids play a string instrument (cello, piano, violin), and a few read COVID-19 success stories to help encourage and lift the spirits of the patients and the staff. Something really cool is that News 12 did an interview with me about why I founded Strings4Hope. It will be part of a segment called "On a Positive Note" airing May 16.” - Brodi Cox
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-CA633Ekoo&t=5s
Tracyann Robinson
"These recent months have been trying for many of us. We have all had to adjust and adapt to a new way of living. After going through my own personal battle of fighting this disease, being quarantined from my family for 28 days, I am now back on the frontlines on labor and delivery caring for Covid-19 patients. I'm not only assisting them in bringing their new bundle of joy into the world, I am also educating them on how to best protect their baby from contracting this disease. Unfortunately this is the new norm. However, we must be thankful for life and be good to one another. Stay safe.”
- Tracyann Robinson, RN
Arjun Dayal ‘21
“When Spring Break began, I found myself wanting to help those who were fighting the virus, but I couldn't figure out how. One day during the first week of spring break, I read an article on NBC online where Dr. Peter Slavin, the President of Mass General Hospital, gave a plea to the 3D-printing community to help in any way they could, whether it was manufacturing parts to split ventilators, producing PPE, or other innovations. I saw this as my calling to help. I started researching designs for 3D-printed masks, but after testing many of them, I found that they just didn't work. About two weeks later, I found a design from a doctor in Montana that was approved by a few hospitals in his area, and after testing it and making some modifications, I reached out to doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC to donate some masks to them and see if they would approve. They wrote back to me saying they loved the design and they were sure that it would help many healthcare workers at their hospital. Since then, I've been sending masks and face shields to hospitals around the country, including Michigan, Maryland, New York, and New Mexico. I've received orders as small as 10-15 face masks and shields to over 100 face shields. I am still receiving orders from hospitals who are in need of these PPE. I'm currently working on an order from a hospital in the Bronx and I'm also expecting one from a Navajo reservation hospital in New Mexico.”
- Arjun Dayal
Gabrielle Diaz-Alcantara ‘25
“Our daughter Gabrielle participated playing a violin piece along with some friends from her music school (School for Strings), in a very special concert that was streamed live celebrating our Earth and Mother’s day (see links at the end of this email, you still can see the concert). Getting the final videos of the concert took a lot of practice hours and extra word for each one of the kids.
During these uncertain times we are very grateful for being part of Hackley's community. We are also very grateful for having music in our lives and we have found that during these hard times sharing it is a wonderful blessing.”
- Patricia and Cuauhtemoc Diaz-Alcantara
Advith Sharma ‘23
“I have always had a passion for geography, and have spent free time over the past year trying to bring my knowledge across the world to help nations across the world.
1. Virtual Tutor in Science, Math, and English in Ghana and Uganda. I tutor a variety of students from different backgrounds in each nation for an hour and a half each weekly. I find it very eye-opening to see how eager students are around the world to learn but do not have enough resources to have a complete education. I feel very fortunate to be able to share my passion in education and science to these students, and hopefully inspire them to continue to learn and broaden their horizons.
2. Mapmaker for the Humanitarian Response Organization: I draw roads, houses and rivers in nations around the world to allow humanitarian organisations to reach secluded communities around the world in places such as Burkina Faso and South Sudan to Myanmar. These communities struggle with refugee crises, flooding, civil war, and more and often do not appear on a map because of poor map resources in their nation.”
-Advith Sharma
Jiya Dhakad ‘26
“The Book Buddies Project, launching on May 22nd, brings virtual story time to Hackley! Students in the 6th grade are recording themselves reading children’s picture books, including
The Pigeon Has to go to School, Giraffes Can’t Dance, Where the Wild Things Are, and many more. The idea behind Book Buddies is to provide a helpful and fun reading resource to parents and teachers, especially in the Lower School, during this time when everyone is at home. These videos will be hosted on Google Drive, continuously updated and available to the entire Hackley community to enjoy.”
- Jiya Dhakad
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YJ5eYTCsaGXoDIUhBtVPp-wMtH0zwqSq
“United, we help one another.”
Do you have an anecdote to share? We’d love to include it here. Send your story to dschmitt@hackleyschool.org