A youth football league has scrapped its plans for post-season celebrations and instead turned to helping Huntington residents hit hard by Hurricane Sandy.
The Huntington Bulldogs Youth Football League said Sunday that it plans to divvy up about $6,000 on people who need help recovering from the Oct. 29 storm that walloped the area.
"There’s other lessons than just football," John Rovet, chairman of the league's board of directors, said. "We can go home and teach our kids a life lesson. It’s the right thing to do."
League funds would have gone toward purchasing trophies, a post-season breakfast and other expenditures.
The board will meet Tuesday to review applications received through Kevin Thorbourne of the Young Leaders program and its own members and decide where the money will go.
"If money is left over, we'll donate it somewhere else, another organization that needs it," Rovet said.
The league has about 400 youngsters in its football and cheerleading programs.
Rovet spoke Sunday at Manor Field Park where young football players were turning in equipment and other groups were busy collecting or distributing goods donated to those in need.
The Young Leaders group and members of the Cold Spring Harbor/Huntington Soccer Club set out tables packed with food, clothing, blankets and other donations. The Huntington High School students in the leaders group had collected items earlier in the week and brought them to the park for distribution this weekend. The soccer club members delivered 100 bags of goods Sunday for distribution by the Manor Field Family Center and Family Service League.
The groups' efforts won the praise of Suffolk Legis. Dr. William Spencer and Town Councilmen Susan Berland and Mark Cuthbertson, who attended Sunday's event.
