Sophie Leighton

Leighton helping out those in need in New Rochelle, N.Y.

4/11/2020 2:24:00 PM | Field Hockey, Features

From The Morning Call

By: Keith Groller

At Mamaroneck High School in the Westchester County suburb of New York City, Sophie Leighton was not only a field hockey captain and an all-league, all-section and all-state player, but also a member of the student council, the National Honor Society and a variety of other school and community-related groups.
 
She's used to being busy. She loves being busy.
 
But the Lehigh University freshman was suddenly presented with unexpected free time in the middle of the school year because of the coronavirus pandemic. She went back home to Larchmont, New York, where her backyard overlooks New Rochelle, the original epicenter of COVID-19.
 
"I was determined to find something positive to do with my time and put my energy toward something good," she said. "I was always so busy with field hockey and school work that I never had this free time, never had time to see the bigger picture."
 
That big picture was pretty bleak, particularly when it focused on her neighboring town of New Rochelle.
So, she put down her field hockey stick and began working with her parents in donating and making grocery deliveries to the New Rochelle food banks and got prepared food to the medical professionals at the hospitals.

For safety reasons, the deliveries were made to the National Guard who made sure they got to the right place.
 
Leighton, a midfielder who played in 10 games for the Mountain Hawks last fall and earned a spot on the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll, saw that sports "isn't always the most important thing."
 
Her heart broke for New Rochelle, where her family had routinely frequented restaurants and stores. The town was always bustling, but that changed on March 10 when a containment zone was set up. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that of the first 173 detected cases of coronavirus in the state, 108 were in New Rochelle.

"It was like a ghost town," she said. "There are many people, a lot of kids, who depend on the food banks in New Rochelle. But people weren't donating. They were rejecting the town because it got such negative publicity. They didn't want to go there. It was tough to see."
 
But instead of running away from New Rochelle, Leighton and her family went to help.

Read the rest of the story on The Morning Call website by clicking here.
 
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Sophie Leighton

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