It seems like Brayden Lewis thinks out of the box. The Shoreham kid wanted to do something nice for his aunt who is a nurse at St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson and her co-workers on the front line of the Covid pandemic. He came up with an unconventional idea: selling homemade picnic tables for squirrels.

 

This apparently is a thing. A woman in Illinois wanted to dress up her backyard for her squirrely visitors and made some picnic tables for the little critters. It went viral after her son tweeted about it.

 

Brayden thought he could make the tiny tables too so he enlisted the help of his father and scavenged his garage for scrap wood. The result was 45 little picnic tables that he sold raising almost $700. He used the money to buy meals for his aunt and the medical staff at St. Charles Hospital, where his aunt, Lisa Eppelsheimer, is a nurse treating COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit.

 

“I am so unbelievably proud of my son for this wonderful act of kindness,” said Brayden’s mother, Meredith Lewis, who is a PSEG Long Island employee. “My wish is that it inspires others and they know to never doubt the impact they alone can make.”

 

Over the past two months, PSEG Long Island has been sending catered meals, snacks and sports drinks to hundreds of front line workers at local hospitals, nursing homes and healthcare facilities across Long Island and the Rockaways.