Friday, 05 February 2010 00:00

Chumming for Dollars

The odds are great that every person reading this article has been touched, either by being a survivor or through kinship or friendship, by the scourge of breast cancer. And that is why con artists know that setting up a “charity” with vague aims to help women with breast cancer and using paid telemarketers to cold call potential donors with a fast pitch that trades on the good names and reputations of legitimate non-profits is a good bet and a way to beat the system for profits all around.

Recently, this reporter received such a call. The spiel was, “I’m calling on behalf of your local breast cancer coalition.” When asked whether she meant the Great Neck Breast Cancer Coalition, she said, “Yes.” When asked specific questions, the caller hung up.

Friday, 05 February 2010 00:00

The League of Woman Voters has been hosting the Supervisor’s State of the Town address for over 20 years; the format is familiar—introduction, speech and questions from the audience. The league, especially Rita and John Tanski, Jane Thomas and Amy Bass, was thanked for its efforts in coordinating the event.

Supervisor Jon Kaiman launched his speech citing Barack Obama’s election by a nation yearning for leadership, bold decisions, change. The country faced the greatest financial collapse since the Great Depression, he said, and the continuation of unsolvable problems involving health care; the environment; and education. The economy appears to be coming back, Kaiman noted, but the electorate is angry.

Friday, 05 February 2010 00:00

Over the Martin Luther King Holiday weekend, Jan. 14 to 18, the Skate School Competitive Team (member of the Ice Skating Institute) of the Great Neck Park District competed in Lake Placid, New York. Under the direction of Shannon Lenihan, the team placed an impressive second place overall. Thirty six skaters competed in both group and individual events including synchronized skating, Ice Theatre, team compulsories, artistic and solo programs.

The team competed against 15 teams from all over the North Atlantic region. Assistant director Christina Tache, synchronized head coach Audra Smith, assistant production director Moriko Betz, coach Milada Stastny, all assisted Shannon Lenihan, who led the team to successfully collect multiple gold, silver and bronze medals. The competitive team, including Rachel Berkower, Jared Betz, Brooke Cenname, Hayley Brooke Cohen, Rachel Coons, Pellegria Cronin, Tracey Dolan, Arielle Farhi, Shaindy Ferster, Hannahbella Ferster, Rachel Ferster, Meria Ferster, Shiley Grinbaum, Carly Hirshon, Samantha Hui. Kaitlyn Hui, Callie Ives, Eirini Kyriannis, Kristen Machado, Samantha Malatos, Vicky Malatos, Alexa Marden, Jillian Marden, Danielle O’Hara, Stephanie Pearl, Carolline Peiser, Jordan Peiser, Kyla Rosenberg, Marissa Schiener, Lucy Seavey, Ruby Seavey, Ilana Sedaka, Ilana Sherman, Jessica Storozum, Cassie Tache, and Ashley Wu, has been working diligently since September.

Friday, 05 February 2010 00:00

This winter Great Neck PAL’s programming includes indoor basketball and indoor soccer as well as Aikido, dance and speed/conditioning. For those who may be unfamiliar with Great Neck PAL it might be interesting for you to learn that the Great Neck Police Activity League (formerly Police Athletic League) has been offering youth sports programming in Nassau County and Great Neck continuously since the 1940s.

Great Neck PAL is run mainly by a group of local volunteer parents all of whom have children who are either current or past participants in PAL activities. These volunteer “commissioners” currently include Sunil Sani (co-ed soccer), Steve Cronin (basketball) and Phil Bornstein (baseball). The current PAL president is Don Rickey, also a local parent who volunteers more than 15 hours of time each week simply to organize the various programs- a job which includes the ordering of equipment and uniforms, hiring umpires/referees, recruiting parent coaches, obtaining fields/gyms and other duties too numerous to mention.