42 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • JULY 2020
MASKS FOR INDIAN COUNTRY
HELPING THE
NAVAJO
WANT TO STAY LOCAL?
Come to St. Thomas Aquinas College
A special message from President-elect, Kenneth
Daly, a student centric academic and business
leader, as he prepares to succeed Dr.
Margaret Fitzpatrick, S.C., Ed.D., who will
retire after completing 25 years of
exceptional leadership at the College.
“As the new President of St. Thomas
Aquinas College, I commit to providing you
with avery supportive and caring environment
to help you navigate these challenging times.
• We have a dedicated team of faculty who
will mentor you every step of the way.
PRESIDENT-ELECT
KENNETH D. DALY
• We have a beautiful, safe, and vibrant campus environment.
• We have student activities, clubs, and sports programs to ensure
you feel welcome and engaged.
• We have access to New York City, international travel, internships,
and community service to enhance your learning experience.
• We have a proud history of caring for students like you—and an exciting
future whereby, together, we will overcome the challenges
we face and develop you into our leaders of tomorrow—leaders
with a genuine sense of purpose.
I encourage you to consider St. Thomas Aquinas College and I hope to
see you on campus in the new semester so we can
prepare you for the future.”
Please visit us at www.stac.edu/NYC-Relief within 2
weeks to apply for special COVID Relief scholarships
amounting to at least $50,000 over 4 years.
NYC Metropolitan Area
(20 minutes from the heart of Manhattan)
125 Route 340 • Sparkill, NY 10976 • 845.398.4100
WWW.STAC.EDU
BY BRIANNA KOVIT
While New York City, the proclaimed
epicenter of the novel coronavirus pandemic,
scrounged for aid and resources
at the peak of the nation’s crisis, there
was a harder-hit U.S. hotspot suffering
in the shadows: Navajo Nation.
Navajo Nation, straddling Arizona,
New Mexico, and Utah, is the largest
Native American reservation, with
more than 175,000 residents. Indeed,
it is just one of more than 300 native
territories ravaged by coronavirus.
Long Islanders have joined the effort
to help provide these reservations with
essential resources, as exemplified by
the CANA Foundation, a Locust Valley
based nonprofit horse advocacy
group, which organized a fundraiser
to send face masks to all the native
territories that need them.
“If we had shortages, they had nothing,”
says Manda Kalimian, founder
of the CANA Foundation. “The native
communities are in dire need.
They’re always in need. They need
masks and they need help during this
COVID crisis.”
Native Americans live
under a different social
structure than many
Americans. Rather
than a nuclear
family structure,
native familial
units can include
many extended
family members all
living in the same
home. When there
isn’t even running
water, constant handwashing
let alone
social distancing
are no more than
distant theories.
Since Native
American tribes
cannot collect taxes,
the stay-at-home order has essentially
halted their economy. They are entirely
dependent on income from casinos and
other enterprises to maintain their
operations and well, gambling isn’t on
anyone’s mind right now.
Navajo Nation amassed a 3.4 percent
coronavirus infection rate, according
to the Navajo Nation Department of
Health. For comparison, the infection
rate across New York state is 1.9 percent.
"I would say that one-third of the population
doesn't have electricity or running
water," Dr. Sriram Shamasunder,
an associate professor of medicine at
the University of California, San Francisco
told HealthDay. "That means that
while 'shelter-in-place' may for us be an
inconvenience, for many Native Americans
it's an impossibility.”
To make a donation,
visit https://www.
g o f u ndme . c om/ f /
masks-for-indian-country?
utm_source=customer&
utm_medium=email&
utm_campaign=p_
cp+share-sheet
Teresa Peters displays homemade masks in Gallup, New
Mexico. (REUTERS/Donovan Quintero)
/NYC-Relief
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