Bellmore-Merrick sheds its unwanted meds

The Bellmore-Merrick Community Parent Organization hosted its eighth annual ‘Shed the Meds’ Event this weekend at Brookside School in North Merrick in recognition of National Prescription Drug Take Back Day on Oct. 23.

From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., school administrators, teachers, parent and student volunteers, in partnership with community coalitions and local legislators, accepted drive through drop offs of unused prescriptions, syringes and sharps as well as illegal drugs which could be dropped off anonymously.

“We’re getting drugs off the streets in a safe way,” Wendy Tepfer, director of the Community Parent Organization said. “Each year we build upon our successes — we’re just thrilled we can help the community.”

The Parent Center partnered with the Community Action for Social Justice, an organization that serves the community through overdose prevention. Executive Director Tina Wolf told the Herald they participate in the ‘Shed the Meds’ event to help with the collection of syringes and sharps.

“We run a syringe return on [Long] Island,” Wolf explained. “The larger mission of the organization is to keep people safe.”

“We have our partnership with CASJ to collect the sharps,” Tepfer said, adding that CASJ has also worked with them in the past for things such as NARCAN training and other overdose prevention events.

Of the students volunteering, there were Honor’s Society volunteers from Merrick Avenue Middle School, and leadership class volunteers from Wellington C. Mepham High School.

Student Lauren Price said that the leadership class at Mepham “teaches us how to become a good leader,” through videos, documentaries and interviews with people who present leadership skills.

Kayla Rudnitsky, another student volunteer, explained that Carol Murray, a school counselor at Mepham, recruited them to help at the event by handing out thank you goodie bags to those who dropped of medications.

Tepfer, who has been the director of the Community Parent Organization for 20 years, was thankful for the “wonderful student volunteers” and for the support of the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District.

“We do a lot of health and safety programs in Bellmore-Merrick,” she added. “[At the Shed the Meds event], we make it so easy for people to drop off medications. Without the support of Bellmore-Merrick, this could not have happened.”