When Kennedy High School senior Sydney Goldschlag was a kid, she used to love any videogame that required her to shoot at a target. Who knew that the Merokean’s fascination with target games would lead to a college scholarship? But that’s exactly what happened. more

At 2:49 p.m. on April 15, two pressure-cooker bombs loaded with ball bearings and nails detonated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, on Boylston Street, shrouding two blocks of multistory brick buildings in white smoke and sending shrapnel hurtling in all directions. Three people were killed and 264 injured in the terrorist attack. Merokean Kara Iskenderian, 20, who is now a junior at Tufts University in Medford, Mass., and a member of the school’s marathon team, was a third of a mile –– or less than three minutes –– away from finishing the race when the crudely constructed, homemade bombs exploded. more

The toughest merit badge that Merokean Alexander Eagen earned during his six years in Boy Scout Troop 225 was swimming, the 18-year-old says. He remembers tiptoeing to the edge of the big lake at Baiting Hollow Scout Camp in Calverton, in Suffolk County, in the summer of 2012. He could only stare at the water, petrified to jump in. Swimming was the final merit badge he needed to attain Scouting’s highest rank, Eagle, so he was frustrated that he couldn’t finish it. more

Merokean Stanley Barkan, center, recently received the Shabdaguchha International Poetry Journal’s Lifetime Achievement Award “for his outstanding contribution to poetry and publishing poets from around the world.” The ceremony took place in August at the International Poetry Festival at Queens Central Public Library in Jamaica. more

Merokean Dina Lohan, 50, mother of troubled actress Lindsay Lohan, was arrested and charged with DWI after she was caught driving a white BMW 77 miles per hour in a 55-mph zone and a breath test revealed her blood alcohol content was .20 –– twice the legal limit, according to New York State Police. more

Growing up, Max Gold fell in love with flying. The lifelong Merokean, now 21, grew accustomed to frequent airplane flights as he and his family would commute from Long Island to Boston to see doctors who attended to his medical care. Max’s fascination with aviation never left him — he is beginning studies this fall at Farmingdale State College, majoring in security systems with a concentration in aviation. more

The Historical Society of the Merricks staged a group reading of the Declaration of Independence on the Fourth of July, the 237th anniversary of the declaration’s adoption by the Second Continental Congress, to commemorate Independence Day. more

In 2008, Merokean Judy Goss, a former high-fashion model for the likes of Armani and L’Oréal, published her first book, “Break into Modeling for Under $20,” with St. Martin’s Griffin. more

Seventeen years ago, Merokean Cindy Knoll was diagnosed with breast cancer. Even though she was then a patient undergoing treatment, she was also still a mother of three. The survivor said she doesn’t know what she would have done if her mother weren’t around to watch her then 1-year-old daughter and help –– and now she wants to make sure other local women battling the disease have the same support. “You love your children, but you are worried about surviving,” she said. “I had a very good support group in my family, but some people don’t, and we want to help them. “ more

Part four in a series on how South Shore residents are coping in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Veterinarian Dr. Lee Gelfand of Merrick, whose All Creatures Veterinary Hospital in Long Beach was all but destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, finds hope in the stories that pet owners tell in the superstorm’s aftermath. more