Legislator Dennis Dunne recently honored Beverlee Szimanski for years of service to the residents of East Meadow and all of Nassau County. At the Fifth Annual "Women: Trailblazers to the New Millennium" award ceremony held last month, Dunne honored Mrs. Szimanski for her work in the community. She passed away in December after a battle with cancer. Accepting on her behalf at the ceremony were her daughter Lee Anne Calabrese and her husband John Szimanski.

Mrs. Szimanski was a community leader in East Meadow for decades, serving on a variety of committees and panels all geared toward improving the lives of her neighbors and friends. Her activities in the community including serving as the president of the Community Association of Stewart Avenue, vice president of the East Meadow Community Organizations, director of volunteer programs at Nassau University Medical Center and she was a member of the Nassau Correctional Facility Advisory Committee.

"Mrs. Szimanski focused her energies to helping out her community and neighbors, you would be hard pressed to find an area of East Meadow that was not influenced by her generosity and kindness," Dunne said. "Beverlee [Szimanski] was a champion of causes in her community and she will be sorely missed, but her spirit lives on in the hearts and mind of the residents of East Meadow."