Hospital Workers Cook Dinner For Families With Sick Kids

Photo provided by Bett Travers
Bett Travers, Patricia Skypala and Janice Perdikoylis and her husband, George, work diligently in the kitchen of the Ronald McDonald House of Long Island.

By Janee Law
jlaw@longislandergroup.com

A group of Huntington Hospital workers recently whipped up dinner for 90 people at the Ronald McDonald House of Long Island.

Patricia Skypala, assistant director of the hospital’s department of pathology and laboratory medicine, said the idea behind the initiative came from Bett Travers, a pathology accessioner, after a group of department employees attended a fundraiser at the house in New Hyde Park.

“We can do something else for them. We can cook a meal because all the food there is pretty much donated, unless people cook their own,” Travers told Skypala.

“That’s a great idea,’” the group concluded.

Local chapters of Ronald McDonald House provide shelter and vital resources for families with children being cared for at a nearby hospital.

To help the local cause, the Huntington Hospital workers put in $750, and collected an additional $250 from other employees, to put towards the food supplies.

With help from Larry Kolar, chef and owner of Montauk-based Westlake Fishhouse, the group prepped the food in the days leading up to the event. Four workers and their spouses went to the house in March for the day of cooking.

The group cooked a variety of comfort foods, including corned beef and cabbage, pigs in a blanket, 20 pounds of macaroni and cheese, chicken pot pies, salad, broccoli, and homemade rye bread, Irish soda bread and vanilla ice cream with sundae fixings.

This was the first time employees of the hospital’s department of pathology and laboratory medicine cooked for the Ronald McDonald House of Long Island, but they’ve already discussed doing something similar in the fall or winter seasons, Skypala said.

The Northport resident added, “It was great, it was fun and we all felt that it was such a good cause. We like to give back and we saw what a great job they were doing at the Ronald McDonald House and we just wanted to be part of it.”