‘This is what Scouting’s about’

Danny Carroccio, a 22-year-old from Amityville, caught a pass underneath the basketball hoop in the St. Christopher School gymnasium last week as 12- and 13-year-olds from Baldwin’s Boy Scout Troop 824 stuck their arms up in defense. Carroccio avoided the pressure and sank the shot, much to the delight of his teammates and the crowd.

“I love it,” said Carroccio, one of more than a dozen members of the Association for Children with Down Syndrome’s basketball team, which routinely squares off against Troop 824.

The friendly competition came to be three years ago, when LJ Vodopivec, now a 13-year-old Boy Scout who attends Holy Cross High School, was working on his Disabilities Awareness Merit Badge. LJ played hockey for the Freeport Arrows and one of his coaches put him in contact with the ACDS. LJ, then a student at St. Christopher, lent a hand with the program’s canoe team, helping students put on life vests and get into their canoes.

Marianne Endo, an adaptive phys. ed. teacher for the ACDS, then asked LJ to help out with the association’s floor hockey program. Eventually, he brought some fellow Scouts along for a game between the two organizations, and it was a great success.

For the past year, the two groups have played floor hockey and basketball, and now they meet each month. LJ said he has developed friendships with many of the ACDS students, including Carroccio, and he is reminded of a valuable lesson each time the troop plays them. “The only person in life who’s stopping you is you,” LJ said. “Because they’ve been told they’re not allowed to do this, but they’re here working harder than we are.”

The ACDS, founded in 1996, is a nonprofit corporation based in Plainview. It serves more than 1,000 people across Long Island with a wide range of disabilities. The students who make up the ACDS basketball team compete in the Special Olympics, but, Endo said, playing games against the Scouts is also great for her students. Aside from the physical activity, they also have the opportunity to interact and socialize with others. Her students look forward to the games.