Editorial: The Recognition Our Board of Education Deserves!

The Recognition Our Board of Education Deserves!

This year, New York State School Board Recognition Week is Oct. 19 to 23, this week! And it is our privilege to take this opportunity to congratulate our Board of Education on their incredible dedication and to thank them for their hard work in ensuring the best possible education for each and every child in our school district.

Thank you, thank you to Board of Education President Barbara Berkowitz, Vice President Fran Langsner, and trustees Donald L. Ashkenase, Lawrence R. Gross, and Susan Miner-Healy. You are truly the ones who put the “great” in Great Neck!

Great Neck Notebook: October 15, 2009

One Too Many

Local officials have estimated that 90,000 children, living in Nassau County, are not getting sufficient food. Not in Appalachia, not in Africa, not in Asia, right here in Nassau County. In the richest country in the history of the world, there are thousands of hungry children. We all know there are hungry children, living in terrible poverty, in other parts of the globe—but right here in America? Yes, just a few miles from your comfortable living room.

Every week, when I visit the Interfaith Nutrition Network soup kitchen in Hempstead, I see some of their faces. I also see mothers and fathers who have lost their jobs and have nowhere else to turn for help. The soup kitchen opens at 10 a.m., but there is a line outside the door starting at 8 a.m. Last year, this soup kitchen was feeding an average of 300 to 350 hungry people a day (Monday through Friday). This year it’s common for us to serve 450 or more meals per day.

If you’ve had some good fortune in your life, please join me in supporting the work of the Interfaith Nutrition Network, which has been providing food, shelter, and support services for Long Islanders in need for more than 25 years. Every $25 which you donate will help feed 12 hungry people.

Please make your check payable to The Interfaith Nutrition Network; donations may be mailed to: Dave Golbert, 7 Lee Court West, Great Neck, NY 11024. To donate food, clothing, or personal care items (soap, shampoo, tooth paste, etc.), please call 917-418-2451 or email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

I hope you will agree with me that even one hungry child is one too many. “Let no one go hungry while there is food on our table.”

 

Editorial:School Days Are Here … And Teams Are Playing

Well school days are here, in full play, and teams are playing. We know that our middle schools and high schools have some fine teams representing just about every competitive sport you can think of. And we love to publicize news and photos of our students and their athletic endeavors.

So please, students, coaches and parents, send us news of your student athletes and their teams. Our back sports pages are always among our most popular pages. Let your team be featured on our sports pages, for all the community to enjoy.

And, remember, our sports pages are not just for school teams, they are for all local athletes and all local teams.

 

From the Desk of Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel

Preparing for the Unexpected: Part II: Creating an Emergency Plan

This is the second installment of a three-part series helping you to prepare for the unexpected. In last week’s column, I discussed the importance of being informed and encouraged you to sign up for the NY-Alert program at www.nyalert.gov. This week, I will focus on how to create an emergency plan.

When an emergency occurs you need to be ready for the unexpected, you want to have a plan.

Editorial: Manhasset, Standing in Solidarity With Great Neck!

Thank you Manhasset! Thank you for standing by our side when Great Neck was faced with a hate group protest on Friday, Sept. 25. Our police and our public officials led a safe, strong yet silent, response. When we were told to “ignore,” we ignored, and that angry group from Kansas did not receive the heated response they had hoped for. We thank Manhasset for their support.

In last week’s issue of the Great Neck Record the Manhasset Clergy Association took out a full-page advertisement signed by a truly diverse group of houses of worship. With love and understanding, this ad from our friends in Manhasset stated: “At a time when some have chosen to pursue hatred, the Manhasset Clergy Association affirms our love for all men and women and expresses our commitment to stand side by side with them, as we affirm unity in the midst of our diversity.”

From the Desk of Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel

Preparing for the Unexpected: Part 1: Be Informed

In the event that a disaster strikes, being prepared for the unexpected can make a stressful situation easier to handle for you and your family. It is important to have the proper tools and plans in place today to ensure the safety of you and your family tomorrow. To help you get ready, I am launching a three-part column series about emergency preparedness titled, “Preparing for the Unexpected.”

The first step in preparing for the unexpected is to get informed about the potential emergencies that may strike your community. Learn about the risks that you and your family face from these hazards. For more information about New York-related risks please visit www.ready.gov.

No Hate in Great Neck!

Congratulations to Great Neck! When a known hate group announced its intention to come to our community, threatening to disrupt our peace, threatening to diminish our pride, we did not panic; we surely did not cave in. We worked together —- all segments of our community came together, acting in concert, with one voice. We would not countenance hate in our midst. We would not tolerate any injury, physical or emotional, to any one of us nor to any one of our beloved and respected institutions. We all worked hard. We planned together, and with one voice we got out the word to ignore the ugly words, the hateful signs, the reprehensible chants. And we all listened.

Great Neck spoke in volumes last Friday, Sept. 25. We spoke with our silence; we spoke with our love, our respect, and our unity. We did not allow hate into our community.

The protestors came, proclaiming hate and prejudice, shouting against all we hold dear. But we did not listen; we did not hear.

Yes, hate came and visited Great Neck on Sept. 25, but we did not let in the hate. We barred our doors with our silence and our refusal to acknowledge the ugly scenes.

We kept out hate and we should be proud!

Congratulations to Great Neck, a wonderful place to live and to work!

 

 

From the Desk of Senator Craig Johnson: September 24, 2009

Senator Johnson Announces $200 Senior LIPA Credit

The Long Island Power Authority has created a program that will help seniors save on their electric bills, Senator Craig M. Johnson, (D-Nassau), announced.

The $10 million initiative would fund a one-time $200 credit for eligible seniors.

“With the cold weather just around the corner, this program could not have come at a better time,” said Senator Johnson. “I applaud LIPA Chairman Kevin Law for spearheading this important effort that will help many seniors living on a fixed income.”

Editorial: Together We Can Triumph!

The Great Neck community will be faced with a great challenge on Friday, Sept. 25, when a known “hate group,” Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kansas, comes to protest and demonstrate at our schools and houses of worship. All of our public officials, all of our police officers, strongly urge everyone to keep away and ignore this group. Please listen! Please keep away from the picket lines! Do not give these people a voice, do not dignify their presence with our presence, do not give them a response (which is all they want).

Express your outrage with your absence! Take time out of your busy life to work for peace and tolerance! For all of us who love Great Neck, and who respect every resident, every institution, we will stay away, we will love and respect one another, and we will not give in to hatred!

 

Comptroller’s Report Howard S. Weitzman: September 17, 2009

Calling Attention to Civic Education Is a Good Thing

I was reading recently how Academy Award-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss is now devoting himself to promoting the education of “civics” in our schools in order to give our children real-world knowledge and, hopefully, wisdom about how to run our government. I never realized that Mr. Dreyfuss and I had so much in common and I enthusiastically join his call to bring back civic education.

During my visits to schools, community groups and other organizations, I always try to instill an excitement and interest in government in young people. At the same time, I encourage them to be active citizens. After all, young people can only benefit from community involvement – personally and professionally – and, if nothing else, they should understand that civic education really does play a critical role in how we go about governing ourselves.