According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, more than 17,000 people die in drunk-driving crashes annually -- one person every 30 minutes. Officials in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District and at the Community Parent Center take that statistic to heart, said Wendy Tepfer, the parent center's director. And so she teamed up with Saul Lerner, the Central District's health and physical education director, to bring an innovative anti-DWI program to Bellmore-Merrick next Thursday. more

June Irvin, a former North Merrick School District superintendent, Old Mill Road School principal and active community member, died on April 27 of natural causes. She was 76. more

Louis Kruh of Merrick, a decorated World War II hero, 30-year veteran of the Merrick School District Board of Education, former president of the Bellmore-Merrick School District board, and longtime advertising executive turned attorney, died after a long illness on May 1. He was 87. more

Richard Lawrence of Merrick, a former Nassau County Family Court judge, longtime legal counsel to a state senator, and well-respected, well-loved community activist, died suddenly on April 21 of complications from a bone-marrow transplant. He was 66. more

When torrential rain and near-hurricane-force winds swept across Long Island on March 13, leaving destruction in their wake, Merrick appeared to be the hardest hit of the four communities that comprise the Bellmore-Merrick area. more

Ladies who enjoy a membership in the Red Hat Society don their crimson caps before taking part in any number of silly soirees. The national society is dedicated to one mission -- fun, frivolity and enjoyment of life -- deepened, of course, by the bond that forms when a group of people get together wearing goofy getups. more

High winds with gusts up to 75 miles per hour sent a multi-story oak tree crashing into the home of 16-year-old Nick Attanasio of Seneca Drive North in Merrick on Saturday. more

A nor’easter packing heavy rain and winds with gusts up to 50 mph slammed into the Bellmore-Merrick area Saturday into Sunday, downing trees and power lines, and sending local fire departments hurrying to keep up with calls. Scattered outages were reported around the area. Above, a large tree limb took down phone lines on Byron Road in south Merrick on Saturday, blocking traffic. more

A fierce winter storm swept across Bellmore-Merrick Thursday into Friday, blanketing the community in snow yet again, this time dumping an estimated six to eight inches of the white stuff on the ground. more

Craig Papach, Kennedy High School's athletic coordinator and a 19-year phys. ed. teacher, had long heard the stories of poverty and loneliness, and he wanted to help. So, on Thanksgiving morning, he and his family piled into their car and made the trek from their suburban home in a quiet Wantagh neighborhood to a tiny church on Beach 94th Street in Queens. They went to lend their hands and, equally important, their ears to a day-long effort to aid the homeless. Papach was one of 10 Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District teachers who joined roughly 100 volunteers from Rock and Wrap It Up, a Five Towns-based nonprofit group founded by Syd Mandelbaum, to feed hundreds of impoverished street denizens, some of whom had not eaten for days. more