The Nassau County Police Department’s 1st Precinct is investigating multiple recent incidents in which young adolescents were approached in the Merrick-Bellmore area by a man or men in recent weeks. more

Development of the Twin Rinks Ice Center has hit full steam at Eisenhower Park, as construction crews are working to build an 80,000-square-foot indoor facility, an outdoor rink and a sports recreational center. more

Editor’s note: Morgan is an eighth-grader at Merrick Avenue Middle School in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District. As everyone knows, the East Coast was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 29. People lost power. Many lost their homes. Some even lost their lives. more

Drivers traveling on Merrick Avenue in recent weeks have had their trips delayed owing to construction, as new curbs and sidewalks are being installed along parts of the busy thoroughfare. more

Strong winds blew vendors’ tents here and there, and there was talk of heavy rain pounding Queens and two tornadoes touching down in New York City, at the Merrick Fall Festival on Saturday. But the weather held, the annual festival carried on, and folks had a blast! more

“Where’s room 239?” “Dennis! Where’s your next class?” “I need some help.” Shouts and the sound of shuffling feet filled the halls of Grand Avenue and Merrick avenue middle schools last week during the annual seventh-grade orientation program, which gives students and their families a chance to get to know their new schools. more

Middle school is a time of change and turbulence in students’ lives –– a high-speed transition from late childhood to early adulthood. Ensuring that students make that leap in a way that respects their social and emotional needs while providing an academically rich –– and demanding –– environment is the job of the middle school principal. This coming school year, both Grand Avenue Middle School and Merrick Avenue Middle School will have new principals, each with years of experience as a classroom teacher and an administrator. more

Caryn Blum describes Merrick Avenue Middle School with a fondness she might reserve for her own home. The MAMS principal arrived at the school in 1999 after having served as a special-education teacher, department supervisor, assistant principal and principal in Brooklyn and Queens for 17 years. And over the past 13 years, she has worked to establish MAMS as a top-rated middle school not only on the South Shore, but also in national rankings. In 2008, MAMS earned the U.S. Department of Education’s highest distinction –– a Blue Ribbon. Now Blum is leaving, but she isn’t going far. more

Big, blue canvas bags labeled “Little Anne” and “Baby Anne” sat at the entrance to the Merrick Avenue Middle School gymnasium last Thursday. Spread across the shiny wooden floor in neat rows were mannequins, a.k.a. dummies. And in a corner, physical-education teachers Art Canestro, Mallory Cogen and Jason Dove were showing a film that revealed the secrets to saving a life with only your hands and mouth to a class of eighth-graders. Soon the students were kneeling before the mannequins, pumping the dummies’ chests with their locked hands and breathing into their plastic mouths. more

If you happened to notice a lot of people wearing blue shirts last week, it wasn’t a coincidence. April 2, recognized internationally as World Autism Awareness Day, was also Light it Up Blue Day, a global initiative to spread autism awareness. more