CHILDREN PAYING HOMAGE TO HISTORIC BLACK LEADERS

BY CHRISTY HINKO

Alt hough Messeroux has produced many such pairings through her business Toddlewood, “Engineers of Equality” grew out of her need to make sense of the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

“2020 happened; the George Floyd situation happened, and Breonna Taylor; my family and I really got involved in peaceful protest,” Messeroux recalls. “I realized that it was time to really educate my youngest [child] about the real world because you always try to protect your children from being scared or being nervous or being different.” adults,” Messeroux says. “I want them to know how to activate; that is the keyword in activism, to take action.”

But as a result of Messeroux’s instinct to protect, her daughter, who was nine or 10 at the time, could not understand what was really going on in the world.

Casting calls began for Toddlewood.

“I put it out there, thinking it was something that would be different and hoping there would be interest,” Messeroux says. “The response was astronomical. There were thousands and thousands of kids and parents, and when they were chosen, they fl ew to New York from all over; they fl ew in from Texas, Alabama, Georgia, all at their own expense, just to be a part of this.” the history and why she is much Parks; to it, way much more.”

Messeroux recalls that the one shoot that she did travel for was to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama, the site of the Bloody Sunday confl ict in 1965, when police attacked Civil Rights demonstrators as they attempted to march to the state capital in Montgomery. The bridge was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2013.

“I had to reassure her that times have changed, but I didn’t want her to take things for granted; I needed her to understand the history and why she is what she is today,” Messeroux says. “The school that she’s in now, much like when I grew up, they don’t really delve into Black History in America. They teach that Black History Month is about Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks; but there is so much more to it, way much more.”

“I wanted to shoot it right on the bridge because it is such a historical site,” Messeroux says. “I wanted to make it as authentic as possible.” wonderful way. to use my platform to leaders...to take action

Messeroux holds a degree in TV and fi lm production and is simultaneously in the process of shooting a “hysterical” scripted comedy.

“I felt a sense of responsibility,” Messeroux says. “I decided to use my platform to acknowledge civil rights leaders...to take action and to be a positive

Messeroux says that she wants people to learn about the people who came before them, who afford them to now sit in the front of the bus.

“I always say that I was created to create,” Messeroux says. “Since I was a kid, I knew I had to do something with color and creativity; I couldn’t see myself behind a desk as a career and in high school I defi nitely knew that I wanted to do movies.” time back when you are away from your children for so long; I needed to make a life change,” Messeroux says. “I taught myself photography.”

Messeroux landed in an advertising career after college, doing commercials and campaigns.

Messeroux says she knew it was time to create something that was truly her own.

The show, at Westbury Arts, 255 Schenck Ave., in Westbury, runs through Feb. 25.

The casting call for Messeroux’s projects opened again at the beginning of February. Toddlewood 2023 is looking for boys and girls age 6 – 11 for many projects such as Messeroux’s Toddlewood Red Carpet photo shoots, movie posters and other ideas.

“Using my artwork, my

“Using my artwork, my God-given skills, I want to be able to educate, inform and empower potentially future decision makers, these kids, as well as

“In advertising, we traveled so much and I was barely home,” Messeroux recalls. Her oldest child was three at the time and she knew she needed to make a career change.

“You cannot get that

“It was time to create something that also included my daughter,” Messeroux says. “She was my muse; she was my fi rst Toddlewood creation. I transformed her to look like Diana Ross.”

Following the media exposure from a feature about her work on the Today Show Messeroux says everything has taken off and has been a bit crazy, assumingly in a husband was going through grad school. “Then my husband said, ‘Well, why don’t you do something with the bees?’ I didn’t know what to do with the bees other than just tending to them and extracting a little bit of honey for ourselves. But I actually started a beauty line, which I still carry.”

Visit westburyarts.org for gallery hours. Visit toddlewood.com to see more of Messeroux’s work, to learn more about the next casting call and to purchase books and other merchandise.

Beauty products made from honey and beeswax have been around for thousands of years. Because honey is a humectant, it traps moisture next to the skin. It also contains calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and zinc, as well as antioxidants. It is also antibacterial.

Once she started seeing success with her beauty line, Harrigan then started selling her own honey.

“I was surprised at how interested people were in local honey that’s made in Douglaston. Every time I extracted it, I would go to local community markets and it would sell out very quickly.”

At this time, she was also teaching yoga to children. After one semester, two of her students gave her a gift. She wanted to do more than just give them a thank you note, so she started thinking about what she had to share with them. She wanted something unique. “I found these little bears and I said, I’m gonna go with my honey and give it to the girls with a cute label that said ‘thank you very much honey.’ That was my very first label. And I gave it to the girls and they absolutely adored them. So then I had all these bears. When someone’s birthday came, I put a label on it. ‘Happy birthday, honey.’ And when Christmas came, ‘Merry Christmas honey.’“ Thus, HoneyGramz was born. The business used to operate out of a small office with no retail space. When the pandemic hit, people were finding the office and knocking on the door to see if they could buy some honey. They were clamoring for a retail space to be able to browse the products in person. Harrigan came up with an ingenious solution. “So instead, we would roll out a little cart like a flight attendant. We’d bring it outside and then my customers would buy or pick it right from the little cart.”

Still, this wasn’t a permanent fix. HoneyGramz needed a home. “So when we were looking for larger space, there’s very few industrial spaces in Great Neck. There’s a lot of smaller retail spaces, but we do everything in house. We actually produce the honey, we bottle the honey, we package and we label we do everything right here on the premises. One day my husband was biking by and there’s a big for rent sign out here. He’s like ‘I think we found our space.’ I called the landlord right away.

We came here and once I saw it, I said I need warehouse space, which is downstairs. And the bonus was a little shop. …It used to be a sign shop, so I said ‘I needed a sign!”

In addition to her own honey and beauty line, Harrigan’s shop sells single source varieties from all over the United States. These honeys all have different flavor profiles depending on what kind of flowers the bees were visiting. Bees are often brought to pollinate farm fields, creating honey from a single source of nectar. For example, if the bees are working a blueberry farm, “all the nectar that’s collected during that pollination period would be from blueberry blossoms. The blueberry honey is actually honey like that’s made from the nectar of those flowers. Not a flavor. I always tell my customers if you actually taste blueberry, like really strong blueberry it’s been added because pure blueberry honey is quite delicate. You have a really little hint of it at the very end. If you take a small taste of each different variety of honey, then you really taste the essence of the difference in the location and the source of the honey, so it’s almost like wine tasting.”

HoneyGramz continues to grow and address the needs of its customers. “This is my ninth year in business. About three years ago, a customer asked us if we had any ginger honey. I’ve never even heard of it. So we did a little research after second and third customer asked for the same thing. That’s an infused line because we only have a pure honey. But this is pure honey with that added flavor to it. But we use all organic ingredients for we call it the superfood line. We use turmeric and all these herbs that’s been known for centuries that are good for your health: turmeric, lemon, elderberry, cinnamon. Since then we’ve added on and now we have 14 different flavors.”

Harrigan took the additional step to have these infusions O/U certified so that more of her customers are able to enjoy them. “Pure honey is kosher; It doesn’t need to be certified. But once we add that extra ingredient (to create the infusion it is no longer kosher). People were dying to taste it but they couldn’t.

So now that we are certified, everyone just came in and…they love the ginger, they love the turmeric, they love the elderberry. So the community really embraced us and we have regular customers here.”

HoneyGramz is located at 345 Great Neck Rd., in Great Neck, just north of Northern Boulevard. The shop is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visit www.HoneyGramz.