SpongeBob Saved a Life

The Good Deed Awards, an annual recognition of the charitable acts of high school students from throughout Long Island, was created by Rabbi Anchelle Perl, Director of Chabad in Mineola.

This year’s honorees are once again a reminder of the selfless nature of the majority of youth and the endless value of this ongoing program – socially, educationally, culturally.

Hailing from more than 17 schools are teenagers who visited nursing homes, devoted their time to ill children, worked with special needs students, volunteered at animal shelters, or even worked on projects to benefit the environment – all on their own time and of their own volition.

Over the many years, the program concludes with a special guest or guests whose good deeds stand out.

In the past they were addressed by students from Columbine High School right after the massacre, a soldier returning from Iraq, a teacher from South Carolina who donated her kidney to her student and a survivor from the genocide from Darfur in the Sudan.

This year’s special honorees was Miriam Starobin, a 12-year-old Long Island girl who credited “SpongeBob SquarePants,” an animated American television character, for teaching her how to help her choking friend.

Miriam and her best friend, Allyson Golden, were in music class at the Long Beach Middle School, when Allyson began choking on her gum. Allyson turned red and started kicking her legs.

Miriam — with thoughts of SpongeBob and the gang — flew into action and performed the Heimlich maneuver, and the gum popped out.

The Awards Ceremony took place in the Supreme Court in Nassau County, this year’s winners were lauded by government and community leaders.