Good deeds are the norm at Valley Stream North High

Forecasters may have predicted bad weather, but may not have seen the good deeds that would follow.

A group of five students at Valley Stream North High School spent their time and effort to help local residents dig out and push out in the aftermath of recent winter storms. Junior Kendel Levy and senior Marvin Voltaire, both 17, helped a local elderly couple push their car through icy puddles during a freezing rainstorm on Feb. 2. Levy, along with students Nicole Moneta, Danielle Berman and Rob Arata, helped a 90–year-old resident shovel out of her home on Feb. 7.

“I think everyone needs to know that it feels good to help somebody,” Levy said. “It’s our obligation.”

On that bitterly cold and rainy morning, Levy was walking to school but little did he know that he was going to be called upon to assist local residents Mark and Elaine Treske with their car troubles. Only one of the couple’s two cars would start and surprisingly, that car was blocked in by the second vehicle in their driveway. Mark Treske was trying to maneuver and push the front car onto Dutch Broadway with no luck until Levy arrived. “He stopped me and I saw he was having trouble with the car so I helped him push it out of a puddle,” Levy said.

While Levy and Treske were pushing, Voltaire was driving by and saw what was going on. “I saw Kendel struggling so I wanted to help him out,” Voltaire said. As both young men helped Treske to push the car out of the driveway, they had to go through large puddles of water and over icy patches in order to get the car out. They were knee deep in water, soaking their clothes.

And after getting the first car out of the driveway, the young men pushed the second one out. Then both friends put the disabled car back in the driveway in the wintery mix. They were offered money by the Treskes, but both teens refused. “The boys vehemently denied the money and said there was no need for it,” said their principal, Clifford Odell.