Week in Review: Teen Nominated for National Award, Schools in Good Shape After Sandy

Stony Brook Teen Nominated for 'Power of a Person' Award

In May, Patch brought you the story of Beth Wilder, the Stony Brook teen who chose to skip having a Sweet 16 party and instead asked her parents to donate the money to Touch a Life, a charity that works to end child slavery in Ghana. What's more, she even organized a 3K walkathon that raised another $2,000 for the organization. Now, Wilder has been nominated for a "Power of a Person" award in a national competition put forth by the publisher of the Ward Melville High School yearbook, Herff Jones.

School Superintendent: 'We Were Really Unscathed' After Sandy

Three Village school buildings and grounds are in overall good physical condition following superstorm Sandy two weeks ago, according to superintendent Cheryl Pedisich. The most severe damage occurred at the North Country Administration Center, which suffered roof damage that has yet to be repaired, Pedisich said. Other than that, she said, the turf field at Ward Melville HS was damaged by one of the bleachers falling onto the field and "chewing it up a bit." There was some damage to a fence and some trees were lost.

Swim Team Takes County Title; Volleyball Team Takes Long Island Title

The girls' swim team dunked the competition to win its 21st straight county championship. Meanwhile, the girls' volleyball team needed five sets to overcome Lindenhurst for the Suffolk County title – but then needed just three to beat Massapequa for the Long Island title. This past weekend they headed upstate for the state tournament; stay tuned to Patch for the results.

School District Preserves Track Coach's Position

Dozens of current and former cross country and track athletes along with parents showed up at Tuesday's school board meeting to hear the news firsthand: their popular longtime track coach, Jerry Vessichio, will remain in his position as head coach. The announcement was met with loud applause. Vessichio, whose position was at stake for undisclosed reasons, has served as the boys' cross country, indoor track and outdoor track coach in Three Village since 1994.

Christiane Amanpour Helps Stony Brook Students Achieve Fundraising Goal

Veteran foreign correspondent Christiane Amanpour has been a supporter of Stony Brook's Marie Colvin Center for International Journalism since its inception, according to professor Ilana Ozernoy. "She lent her name to a couple of things that we did," Ozernoy said. "She’s been pretty much involved from the beginning." Now, Amanpour has donated more than $9,500 to help students in the center's Journalism Without Walls program travel to Kenya in January. The program aims to give students hands-on experience as foreign correspondents as well as make them more well-rounded as domestic journalists.

Local Restaurants Experience Hurricane-Related Losses

Along with residential power outages, a number of restaurants across town lost power, too – causing widespread food spoilage, loss of business, and in some cases physical damage to their properties that affected their bottom lines. "Where to begin?" said Bill Sukow, owner of Brook House in Stony Brook. "We had a pretty decent year and then all of a sudden we had Sandy come and push our heads back under."

Hurricane Effects Slow Local Real Estate Market

During a time of the year when the real estate market would already be starting to slow down, the after-effects of Hurricane Sandy seem to have put the brakes on even harder locally, according to local real estate experts. "People are in survival mode," said Vic Amoroso of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International. "It puts people in a different frame. People find it very difficult right now to make decisions about their residences." Among the consequences: closings have been delayed somewhat, banks have been requesting re-inspections of homes in contract, and showings and open houses have slowed.