50 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • JANUARY 2021
BOOMER ESIASON
QB DONOR BLITZ
BY MAIA VINES
Retired NFL quarterback Boomer
Esiason recently announced on his
show The Morning Show with Boomer
& Gio that he is raising money to
help Colleen Celentano, a fellow East
Islip native who is in danger of losing
her home.
Celentano has been a Home Depot
employee for more than 20 years
but can no longer afford to keep
her house and also pay her mother’s
costly medical bills. After suffering
a stroke two years ago, her mother
is currently on life support. Esiason
heard about Celentano’s story from
her friend and coworker, Susan
Palladino.
“With the help of Susan Palladino,
Home Depot, and some of my
friends, we want to make a difference
for Colleen,” Esiason said on
the show.
The Boomer Esiason Foundation contributes
to advancing cystic fibrosis
research but Esiason realized that he
would need assistance outside of his
foundation to help Celentano, who is
autistic. The show host reached out
to Winters Center for Autism in West
Babylon, and it set up a donation page
for Celentano called “Help Colleen
Preserve Her Home.”
“Diagnosed with autism as a
child, and an East Islip resident
for more than 40 years, Celentano
stands to lose everything she
has worked so hard for,” the
Winters Center for Autism
tweeted.
Prior to the podcast
episode, Home Depot
employees and
East Islip residents
raised $11,000, and
Esiason has agreed
to match the first $25,000 raised. As of
December, more
than 1,600
c o n t r i b u -
tors have
donated.
“We’re almost there! Please help if
you can,” Esiason tweeted on Dec. 5.
“It’s not the amount we each give, it’s
the amount of people who give. I can’t
thank all of you who have given personally.
I wish I could. Please know that
I’m eternally grateful for all of your
donations.”
During the Boomer & Gio show, fans
called in to share encouraging
words and promises to donate.
Palladino also called in
and voiced that she has
witnessed a positive
change in Celentano
due to all the
support and
contributions.
“It’s going to
be a wonderful
Christmas for
Colleen,” Palladino
said.
Boomer Esiason talks on the phone to help raise funds for charity. (REUTERS/
Lucas Jackson)
PARENTING TIPS
SCREEN-FREE NIGHTS
RECHARGING WITHOUT PHONES
BY EMILY KLASS, PH.D.
Struggling to have your child put down
their phone and go to sleep at night? It
was hard before the Covid-19 pandemic,
but now it just seems impossible. As a
child psychologist, I hear story after
story of children of all ages having extreme
reactions to putting their phone
away at night.
This interferes with the quality of sleep,
which is vital to healthy growth and development.
Sleep deprivation damages
the adaptation of neural structures in
the developing brain. The brain centers
responsible for processing visual
signals and sensory information are
affected.
In 2019, teens spent 7 hours and 22 minutes
on the phone each day, with tweens
not far behind, according to a report by
Common Sense Media. Preschool-age
children use smartphones and tablets
longer than recommended and parents
often don’t realize it. When the phone
is in the bedroom, children may not be
able to separate from their phone and
their usage is much longer than any of
us know. The Mayo Clinic cautions that
we must manage our children’s interface
with smartphones.
Emerging scientific research is compellingly
telling us that our children are
experiencing increasingly disrupted
sleep schedules, sleep quality, extremely
decreased opportunities for physical
activity, and much more sedentary
behavior.
At night when we tell our kids to give us
their phone, we might as well be telling
them to cut off their hand – it is their
friend, all they have learned during
the day, pictures of their pets and their
self-reflections, their fun, their social
standing, their favorite book and song
— their world.
We can address the transition and quality
of sleep in these proven ways:
1. The phone cannot be in the hand all
day. The tie becomes too great, and
separating too intense.
2. Keep a bedtime ritual. Separating
from the phone can be incorporated
into it.
3. Mirror your expectation of them in
your own behavior: children are quick
to indict parents for being glued to
screens.
4. Put the phone to bed. Let it recharge
while we all recharge.
This story first appeared in New York
Family
Kids need time away from their phones. (Getty Images)
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