Education

North Fork NJROTC once again the region’s best

KATHARINE SCHROEDER PHOTO | NJROTC members march in the Southold Town Memorial Day parade last month.
KATHARINE SCHROEDER PHOTO | NJROTC members march in the Southold Town Memorial Day parade last month in Greenport.

The North Fork NJROTC has won the Area 4 most outstanding unit award for the eighth year in a row and, in addition, placed third for the most outstanding unit in the nation.

Area 4 covers states Delaware through Maine and western Pennsylvania, with over 50 NJROTC units.

Maj. William Grigonis, the senior instructor, says the greatest factors contributing to the unit’s success are community service, academic standing and the number of ROTC college scholarships and service academy appointments its cadets earned.

Cadets attending academies are David Burkhardt from Mattituck, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy; Eddie Wright from Greenport, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and Richie Smith from Mattituck, the Naval Academy at Annapolis.

Cadets receiving ROTC scholarships are Cassieanne Pelan from Mattituck, a Navy ROTC scholarship to the University of Tampa; Shelby Pickerell from Southold, a Navy ROTC scholarship to University of California/Berkeley; Katie Saporita from Southold, a Navy ROTC scholarship to the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Sydney Sanders from Mattituck, an Army ROTC scholarship to the University of Connecticut; and Lyndsie Taylor from Mattituck, an Army ROTC scholarship to the University of Tampa.

This year the North Fork NJROTC also had four cadets place in the top ten of the New York State American Legion Cadet of the Year Program. Katie Saporita was number ten, Caitlin Penny was number four, Lyndsie Taylor was number two, and Shelby Pickerell was this year’s number one cadet.

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