North Amityville nonprofit aims to rebuild after losing supplies in spring floods

A basement can collect a lot of items over the course of eight years.

So emotions were raw when the North Amityville nonprofit Keep Your Change, which offers after-school and summer programs for children and teens, suffered flood damage in the spring. The nonprofit lost eight years of supplies.

Everything from crates of notebooks and pencils to baskets of costumes and toys were thrown away. There were books, basketballs, folding chairs and tables. The supplies used to teach the children skills — a dozen bicycles and sewing machines — are gone. The group also lost items it collects throughout the year for its Blessings in a Box initiative, where shoeboxes are filled with toiletries and gifts for homeless families at Christmas.

The loss was immeasurable for a nonprofit that serves many economically disadvantaged families and helps children both academically and socially, said Pam Allen, the group’s chief operating officer, who is operated out of the Irwin S. Quintyne Community Center in the City of Babylon on Commerce Boulevard. . “It was devastating,” she said. “This flood took eight years of our supplies.”

After discovering the April Flood, Allen named the City Babylon. City employees went to clean out the basement and threw everything away. The nonprofit could not afford flood insurance, Allen said.

City spokesman Ryan Bonner said employees removed all items from the basement to prevent mold growth. He said the city tested the basement and determined no mold remediation was needed.

“New Things We’ve Lost”

Keep Your Change offers school help, Regents exam and GED tutoring. They also offer a wide range of other activities, from sports and music to crafts and life skills. Lessons include sign language, chess, sewing and cooking.

Allen said that because he wasn’t allowed into the basement to take pictures, he doesn’t have a master inventory of everything the city removed. “Every day we continue to realize new things that we have lost,” she said.

The nonprofit charges $50 per week for the after-school program and $125 per week for the summer program. But few families can afford to pay the entire bill. No one is turned away, Allen said. Children often have sponsors in the community.

The nonprofit will hold its first fundraiser to rebuild its inventory. It will host a “tennis ball” on October 18, where individuals and organizations can purchase sponsorships ranging from $500 to $7,500.

Last Thursday, after finishing their homework, a dozen kids sat around tables for a cooking lesson with Louis Daniels, Jr., 38, of Huntington, the nonprofit’s executive director. Daniels had the students prepare a stir-fry. They first learned to hone their knife skills, mastering techniques with three different types of knife cuts – a large dice, a julienne and a brunoise – before cooking the meal.

Daniels, who grew up homeless in Wyandanch and graduated from Yale University, said after-school programs “are what kept me together.” He said he started cooking because children living in homeless shelters often “couldn’t get a decent meal.”

“This way, we’re not just giving them a meal, but we’re teaching them some basic skills that they can’t learn in school,” he said.

“A Safe Place”

Tiffany Cunningham, 16, of Copiague, volunteers in the after school program. She called the loss of supplies “very upsetting.”

The flooding resulted in the loss of boxes of yarn she used to teach children how to crochet, she said. But the volunteers worked to find other ways to stimulate that part of the brain.

“We don’t want them to lose that creativity,” she said.

Keep Your Change has had a major effect on the children who participate, parents said.

“It’s a safe place where I can go after school and learn,” said Trecia Victor, 52, of Amityville.

Allison Jonas, 48, of Amityville, said that after hearing about the flooding, parents were “just praying that the program wouldn’t be closed as a result.” She said that because paper was lost, Keep Your Change volunteers were unable to print her son’s SAT practice tests there. He went to the library instead.

Despite the minor inconvenience, the program continues to help her children significantly, she said. She pointed to her son Andrew, 17, who has started cooking at home and is taking a sign language course at school after learning both skills at Keep Your Change.

“They help prepare them for life beyond their home,” Jonas said. She is confident, she said, that the program will survive the setback.

“We need the community to come together to rebuild it,” she said.

Denise Bonilla has been with Newsday since 2003 and covers the city of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.