Keeping the force on task

Large groups of young people, wearing orange safety vests and surrounded by auxiliary police, can sometimes be spotted in Rockville Centre’s downtown, picking up garbage. But don’t be fooled by appearances, cautions Mayor Francis X. Murray — they’re not on probation.

These volunteers are members of the Mayor’s Youth Task Force, founded shortly after Murray took office in 2011. The community service group, which is open to residents from sixth grade through their senior year of college, asks its members to give back to their community through work ranging from cleanup projects and spring plantings to food drives and volunteer work at the Sandel Senior Center. Since its inception, the group has steadily grown, and recently passed the 100-member milestone.

“They’re really a great group,” said Murray. “The first year I was mayor, they were on the cover of the Annual Report.”

The group began with nearly 50 members, and as word spread, it grew larger. In the beginning, nearly all of the projects were beautification-based, Murray said — weeding parking lots, planting flowers in village containers and picking up litter and leaves on downtown streets, around the Long Island Rail Road station and in parks.

Recently, however, the group has branched out. Resident Stacy Meekins, along with village administrative assistant Gwynne Feiner, acts as its adult leader, researching opportunities for charity and ways for the task force to branch out. Meekins’s daughter, Mackenzie, a student at Nassau Community College and one of the group’s youth leaders, said this has led to a great deal of work with the Sandel Center, where volunteers recently cooked and served the seniors a Mardi Gras dinner.

“[The seniors] appreciate all the little things you do for them,” Mackenzie said. “For you to just be around them, they just get so happy.”