'Stony Brook Strong' Bracelet Movement Sees Swell Of Support For Flood Relief

STONY BROOK, NY — If you are walking around Stony Brook recently, you might be wondering where all the green bracelets came from.

There's a reason behind them.

The woman behind them, Olivia Ross, grew up in Stony Brook, visiting Mill Pond where she would feed the ducks with her family with the historic Grist Mill in the background.

"It's always been a big part of our family growing up, and taking walks to the duck pond and just going to Avalon and walking," she said. "It was just a great place to go."

As a young professional, just starting her career out of college, she passed on that tradition to the next generation in her nieces and nephews. But that was not to last for long, as Mother Nature had other plans, and the beloved scenic spot was devastated by a pair of severe storms in August.

The pond flooded over, washing out over a wide swath of land, endangering the fish and wildlife that called the place home, the Grist Mill was damaged, and Harbor Road, which sits just adjacent to the area, partially collapsed, preventing anyone from traveling on it.

She now lives in Port Jefferson, but after she took the ride over, seeing the devastation broke the nature lover's heart.

"I knew I couldn't just sit back and watch this happen, just seeing all the wildlife, and just that beautiful piece of land that we all grew up with destroyed," she said. "I knew I needed to do something."

She decided to raise money, but wanted supporters buy something with a message behind it, so she settled on bracelets — green ones featuring slogans like, "Stony Brook Strong" and "Save The Mill Pond."

One hundred percent of the proceeds will go to help the Ward Melville Heritage Organization, stewards of the area where the pond and grist mill are.

"I wanted to promote the community getting together and helping out each other and supporting the Ward Melville Heritage Organization, and knowing that they have a community behind them, standing there for them and wanting to help as much as we can," Ross said. "No one expected this to happen. No one saw this big storm coming, and especially since it happened, no one would have thought it would have gotten this bad."

"So being part of that community, ever since I was young, I was happy to do something like this, and it was nice to have every one of [the residents] come together," she said.

So far, she has sold well over 500 bracelets at $2 apiece to help in the rebuild.

The grist mill dates back to 1751, and has been placed on both the national and state historic registers.

Gloria Rocchio, president of the Ward Melville Heritage Organization, told Patch it's not just the pond that was severely damaged, but the grist mill.

While it was structurally safe after the storm, mud had run throughout the building, and the sluice needed to be checked.

The group could not even get to it to see if it was in good shape.

And the wheel, which was restored last year, was another story.

"We're now able at least to move it, because prior to, a couple weeks ago, it was buried in sand," she said, adding that wasn't good when the tide came in and out. "So we freed it up in that regard, and we're able to move it once a week."

Rocchio could not place a figure on how much it will cost for repairs.

"There's a lot more work to be done," she said, adding that there are sections of the structure, like the sluice gate, that the group does not know if its responsible for. "We can see the structure is there, but we don't know if it moves or what has to be done."

Rocchio noted that Mill Pond is very important, as is the Grist Mill "not only this community, but actually all over the United States."

"We're getting little donations, or nice letters saying why they remember the pond and the Grist Mill," she added.

"A lot of this is emotional, but that's what you get when you have a beautiful place like that," she said.

One man told her as a young man that he would go and sit there and the experience actually "saved his life," because of "the relaxation and beauty," she said, adding, he is definitely behind saving the pond."

President Joe Biden signed a federal disaster declaration this week, making way for infrastructure funding to restore the area.

Ross was shocked about how many people were interested.

"It just, like, blew up," she said. "That makes me so happy because people really do care, and they want to help out. So seeing that and going through this whole process, it's just been great. It's been such a good experience, and I'm so happy. I want to be able to do as much as I can for this committee."

Even former residents of the sleepy hamlet are chipping in to help.

Ross has received orders from North Carolina, Ohio, and Florida.

"A lot of people who grew up here, and now that that means out of state, still want to be a part of the community and still want to help out in rebuilding," she said.