Farmingdale High School football team adds helmet decal to honor bus crash victims
The Farmingdale High School football team will wear this decal on its helmets in honor of the band members and chaperones involved in a bus accident. Credit: FARMINGDALE SCHOOLS
The Farmingdale High School football team is adding a new decal to its helmets to honor those affected by last week's bus accident involving members of the school band, according to the school's athletic director Jeanne Berkoski.
The team plays at Port Washington on Saturday at 2 p.m. and will wear the decals for the rest of the season. The decal features the school logo — an ‘F’ on a green shield — and is encircled with musical notes and a clef.
“The band is an important part of our community and performs at our games and we thought it appropriate to honor them this way,” Berkoski said. “This is the kind of thing we do at Farmingdale.”
The bus carrying members of the band and bound for a camp in Pennsylvania crashed down a 50-foot embankment last Thursday. Band leader Gina Pelletiere, 43, and chaperone Beatrice Ferrari, 77, were killed and dozens were injured.
Farmingdale's game last Friday against Freeport was postponed. The team will have its first home game since the crash on Oct. 6, homecoming against Baldwin, and is still planning how to mark the tragedy.
“It’s really had an impact,” Berkoski said. “We have a 300-piece band and there is a sense among the band members that’s like, ‘It could have been any one of us.’ . . . and the outpouring of support for our community has been tremendous.”
Port Washington will have a moment of silence before Saturday's game and will have many attendees wear green.
“Anything we can do to make them feel supported, we are going to do,” Port Washington athletic director Nick Schratwieser said.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.