Local businesses team up with Riverhead High School's Key Club … – RiverheadLOCAL

Local businesses have teamed up with the Riverhead High School Key Club and Cooking Club to help provide Thanksgiving turkeys and trimmings to Riverhead school district’s families in need.

The effort is being spearheaded by restaurateur Jerry Dicecco, owner of Jerry and the Mermaid on East Main Street.

Riverhead High School teachers Garrett Moore and Roberta MacGray, advisors to the high school’s Key Club and Cooking Club, approached Dicecco about sponsoring the Thanksgiving dinner drive, the owner-chef said.

“They were looking for another sponsor,” he said, “because Peconic Brewing Company did it last year.” The brewery closed down earlier this year.

For Dicecco, known for his generosity, the project was a natural fit. He’s undertaken other efforts to help local families and workers. During the COVID crisis, he began offering customers boxes of produce at a discount, with curbside pickup. He provided catered meals to first responders at Peconic Bay Medical Center, Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps, and Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. He also organized an effort to assist hospitality workers left suddenly unemployed by the coronavirus pandemic shutdowns. His “Mermaid Project” coordinated fundraising to purchase fresh foods and donate prepared meals for the workers and their families.

After agreeing to partner with the high school clubs on the Thanksgiving dinner project, Dicecco reached out to Sysco, a wholesale food distributor. The company agreed to provide frozen turkeys at a deep discount — half the usual price, Dicecco said. He would asked local businesses to donate funds to purchase the turkeys.

Dicecco said he posted on social media about the Thanksgiving fundraising effort in partnership with the high school clubs and the response from the local business community was instantaneous. And it was overwhelmingly positive, he said.

Funds collected over and above the cost of the turkeys will be spent on purchasing Thanksgiving dinner side dishes, Dicecco said.

All told the effort will stock 50 Thanksgiving baskets for local families in need.

In a Facebook post thanking Dicecco, MacGray called him “a true blessing to our community” who is “always willing to help others, especially your neighbors. We can’t thank you enough.”

The families are being vetted by the school district’s social workers, who are compiling the list for distribution.

Donors so far, he said, include Wendy’s Deli in Mattituck, Islandia Pools, Riverhead Nissan, Riverhead Hyundai, Montauk Distilling, NOFO Rentals, Long Island Cauliflower Association, Universal Home Sales and RiverheadLOCAL.

Dicecco’s wife Dani is hosting a kids’ dance party fundraiser at her dance studio, Ugotta Dance in East Moriches, on Sunday from 2:30 to 4 p.m. The attendees can donate money or food, he said. (Ugotta Dance is located at 130 Montauk Highway, East Moriches, 11940.)

“It’s all about supporting local families in need,” Dicecco said. “It’s a nice thing to do.”