Riverhead High students donate life ring for Grangebel Park safety

Riverhead High School Key Club students placed a life ring at Grangebel Park on Friday, June 26, after identifying a safety gap along the Peconic River and turning it into a service project. The donation added a basic rescue tool to a waterfront used by residents and visitors, giving the park a small but tangible layer of protection.

The ring was presented to the town during a brief gathering at the park that brought together Town Supervisor Jerry Halpin, Police Chief Ed Frost and Heart of Riverhead Civic Association President Cindy Clifford. The mix of students, town officials and civic volunteers made the gesture more than a school volunteer project. It was a local response to a specific hazard in a public place where people gather near the water.

Students treated the missing equipment as a problem they could solve themselves rather than a task that had to wait for a larger capital project or a slow committee process. That approach gave the Key Club a visible role in public safety at Grangebel Park, where even a single life ring can matter if someone is in trouble near the shoreline. The project also put the Riverhead school district’s service culture on display in a way that was concrete and easy to see.

For Riverhead, where the waterfront is part of the community’s identity, the donation carries practical weight. The Peconic River draws recreation and foot traffic, and the new ring gives the town another piece of rescue equipment at a spot students believed needed it. The project showed how a small donation, made in the right place, can become a civic fix with immediate use.

It also raised a broader question about other waterfront locations in Suffolk County that may not have basic rescue gear in place. At Grangebel Park, Riverhead High students identified a gap, worked with town leaders and left behind equipment that could help save a life.