November is a time to be especially thankful

Thankful for our veterans,  who will be honored with a parade on Sunday, Nov. 8 at 2 p.m.,  beginning at the East Moriches School and ending at Soldiers and Sailors Park. Thankful for Serenity Nails and More in Eastport which, once again, will be collecting non-perishable Thanksgiving sides for us to give to the families we help.  

Thankful for all the hundreds of people who attended our Mega Auction at ESM Jr.-Senior High School to raise funds for supporting all the helping things we do.  Thankful for the ESM administration and school board who appreciate our mission and allowed us to utilize their facilities at no charge so that all our funds can still go to help people in need.

We are a nonprofit charity—no one at Helping Makes U Happy gets paid; all our good work is for the public benefit.  Thankful for all the people who brought Thanksgiving non-perishables to the Helping Makes U Happy Mega Auction to give us a head start for the holiday and for the CMHS Honor Society students who will be collecting also.  

If you’d be interested in collecting for us, too, non-expired items can be dropped off until Nov. 16 in our deck box next to the front steps at 44 Hawkins Ave., Center Moriches, or by contacting us to make arrangements at 631-848-9008.  

Thankful for the Center Moriches Fire Department and Chubs Meats, who we will be partnering with for a free turkey giveaway, final date to be announced.

Thankful for the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, which we also collect for to assist with their Turkey Giveaway Day for various helping organizations on Nov. 23.

Thankful for our helping friend Rita Lombardo Busch, who will be scheduling the long-awaited free crochet classes at Helping Makes U Happy, beginning in November—contact us for more info at helpingmakesuhappy@gmail.com.  

Thankful for Nicole Allegrezza, the editor, and the Tide of the Moriches newspaper, for continuing to let us share our helping news.

Thankful especially for all of you who continue to support our helping mission and wishing you all a blessed and happy Thanksgiving!

To the Board of Education and administration in the ESM school District:

We’d like to thank you for allowing us to use your facility for our Mega Auction fundraiser, held on Oct. 27, 2026. It’s a huge undertaking and we appreciate so much the assistance of Sal Alaimo, Thomas Fabian, Patrick Hayes, and James Sanders, who went above and beyond in helping us to make it a success. We’ve been partnering with your school social workers and teachers to help families for a number of years now and look forward to continuing and expanding that partnership.

-Keith Caputo and the Helping Makes U Happy Board