Three Village Central School District students Maddie and Joseph Mastriano have been named “People of the Year” in the Times Beacon Record’s 2017 annual edition.
 
The brother and sister team are the founders of the Three Village Kids Lemonade Stand, which has raised more than $36,000 for Stony Brook Children’s Hospital. 

Here’s what the pair had to say about why they choose service to the community and how they felt about receiving this award: 

Maddie: “I think it is very important to give back to the community, especially to different places like the Stony Brook Children’s Hospital. By giving to places like this, it helps give children the opportunity to one day have a better quality of life. When we can give back together, we can achieve greater things as a community. Knowing that this lemonade stand is something we all did together is something I am very proud of. We all worked together to raise awareness and to achieve a goal. Together we let the patients at the SBCH know that we are thinking of them, and will do what we can right here to help raise money for the Child Life Services program, [which] makes their time at the hospital a little easier. I honestly was quite shocked being named ‘People of the Year’ with my brother. I didn’t do any of this for attention in any way, shape or form. I did the lemonade stand and will continue to organize this every year because it is the right thing to do. Hitting the goal of $20,000 is all I ever hoped for out of this, to possibly better a child’s life in the future.”

Joseph: “Giving back to the community is something I feel very strongly about. I think it is important to realize and remember how lucky we are in certain life situations. I am lucky to have my health, and I know that there are many children who are fighting every day. I think by me giving a little bit of my summer to let the children at the hospital know we are thinking of them is the least I can do. The lemonade stand is a great way for all of us students in Three Village to do our part to help. It’s pretty amazing how kids together selling lemonade have been able to make such an important impact. Being named ‘People of the Year’ was a really unexpected honor. We did the lemonade stand to bring attention to and raise money for the Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, not to receive credit. I think all of the volunteers and our sponsors equally should share this honor with us; without the help of everyone together, none of this would have been possible.”

The district congratulates Maddie and Joseph on this well-deserved honor! Below is the full feature from the paper.