The Manhasset Community Fund has just written to those of us who have helped in the past, asking for our continued financial support. The fund's letter lists all the organizations it assists. Noticeably missing from that list is the Boy Scouts (and Cubs). Here's why: In 2005 the fund made its final annual gift of $5,000 to the Theodore Roosevelt Council, our Scout council here in Nassau County. At the same time, someone at the fund called the council and said it was being dropped as a member of the fund, without offering any reason for this action.

Maybe the fund objected to the many service projects that our Scouts have performed in Manhasset and in the wider community. Or perhaps they are unhappy that at every meeting our boys pledge to do their duty to God and to country and to help other people. Or could they be peeved that we provide fun-filled outdoor programs to over 200 Manhasset boys?

Whatever their reason, the fund has decided to stop cooperating with the Boy Scouts. We parents of Scouts and Cubs, past and present, should be concerned about how the council can make up the $5,000 shortfall. I'm going to help by giving to the council what I would in the past have given to the fund.

You can do this also. Send your check to Theodore Roosevelt Council, BSA, at 544 Broadway, Massapequa, NY 11758. On the memo line of your check write "Friends of Scouting." Be sure to let the Fund know why you are shutting them out this year. Let us hope that the Manhasset Community Fund will ultimately agree with us that Scouting isn't so bad after all, and that it plays an important part in socializing and civilizing our youth.

Donal McCarthy

Once again the residents of Norgate had a scare and nearly an accident that could have resulted in serious injury, due to aggressive driving on a residential street. On Monday morning (Nov. 27), as parents and children waited for a school bus, a driver passed the stopped bus, ran over a lawn; then after just missing the children and parents, proceeded to run another stop sign. This kind of behavior is totally unacceptable. Dennis Street and Norgate Road are part of a neighborhood that has been used as a cut-through to avoid traffic lights at Northern Boulevard and Plandome Road. I am asking that the same traffic signs that appear at Strathmore Road at the Onderdonk House be placed at the entrances to Norgate to restrict traffic. I would also ask our neighbors to be considerate and obey the law. Please stop at the stop signs. Please do not put our children in harms way.

Christopher Quirin