Community Corner
World Gym Setauket Lauded for Helping Community after Sandy
Gym opened its doors to non-members and held a fundraiser to help an employee pick up the pieces after the storm.
For people around the Three Village community, World Gym Setauket became a home-away-from-home after Hurricane Sandy hit in October when the management opened its doors to non-members for hot showers and charging stations for electronic devices.
Gina-Marie McNulty, manager and personnel director, said the gym had lost power for less than a day during the aftermath of the storm. Within days, McNulty said, the 89,000-square-foot gym saw as many as 500 people taking advantage of its amenities – both members and non-members – at the same time.
But for one Lindenhurst family, the gym fostered a new sense of home altogether.
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Barbara Delli Carpini and her family lost nearly everything in the floodwaters of the "superstorm," and the gym held a daylong fundraiser in November to help her family recover. It raised more than $5,000 to help her family return to a normal life.
"We are a family who over the years has donated time, energy, and money to various organizations in our community and others across Long Island, so to be on the receiving end of a fundraiser is unusual, uncomfortable, and humbling," said Delli Carpini, who owns the cafeteria at the gym, in a thank-you letter. "As I struggled to put pride aside, the World Gym staff quickly put together this fundraiser and ... gave us a financial boost that will enable us to rebuild our lives more quickly."
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Not only did Delli Carpini express her gratitude, but other members of the community lauded the gym's management for their generosity.
"Being without power for 3 days, World Gym became a motel of sorts for me and others who were without power for over a week," said Lily Zajc, a member. "I was so thrilled to have a hot shower there and power up my cell phone, without having to do it sitting in my car. I noticed other folks powering up their electronics, buying food in the café and just staying there with their families for warmth. It was such a generous, heartwarming gesture for a local gym to open its doors to the community."
McNulty said the storm really brought people together afterward.
"It was such an awful thing but it was really a shining moment for this community," she said.
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