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DECEMBER 25 - 31, 2025
Vol. 32 No. 52
HERALD PERSON oF tHE YEAR Shawn SaBel
Serving Baldwin beyond the bar From pub owner to community pillar, Shawn Sabel is Baldwin’s go-to guy By Allyson Ferrari
Baldwin rifle team earned multiple honors Page 8
When the community of Baldwin is in need, Shawn Sabel jumps at the opportunity to help those around him. Why? His answer is simple: He just wants to see Baldwin do better. From raising money for local families to spearheading the fundraising initiative to hang holiday lights in town, Sabel has been a model of philanthropy in Baldwin, and for his efforts, he has been named the Herald’s 2025 Person of the Year. In November 2018, Sabel purchased the Irish Pub, on Merrick Road in Baldwin, wanting to live out his dream of owning a bar. Growing up in Merrick, he was surrounded by the bar-scene atmosphere his whole e is the life, with family members who worked hardestin them. At age 32, he went in search working person of a bartending job and was hired at the Irish Pub. Two months later, I’ve ever met. he bought it. From that point on, he wanted to be involved in the commuSaMaNtHa CoolS nity in any way he could. The Cools Team “When I came here, I fell in love with this town,” Sabel, now 39, said. “I walked in the Irish Pub the first day I was going for a bartending job and I was, like, ‘Wow, this feels like home.’” Susan Cools, president of the Baldwin-Rockville Centre Rotary at the time, recalls meeting Sabel at a Rotary meeting. Cools and her daughter, Samantha, are real estate agents who make up the Cools Team at Compass, selling prosperities on the South Shore. “He came in and said he had just purchased the Irish Pub and he really wanted to be involved in the community,” Susan recalled. “He wanted to get to know everybody and do whatever he could to be helpful in the community.” Cools had a feeling that Sabel was someone the community needed from that first day. “I remember at the time, thinking, well, he’s very young, and that’s wonderful, because that’s exactly what we need — hopefully he’ll do what he says he wants to do,’” she recounted. Fast forward seven years, and Sabel has proved to be a man of his word. This year his fundraising focus was on bringing holiday lights to the stretch of Merrick Road that runs through Baldwin. After residents voiced their disappointment and frustration about the lack of lights in town on a local Facebook group last year, Sabel, inspired to help, decided to turn the conversation into action. “Last December, Shawn said that every fundraiser he’s go-
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First student rep. on school board is sworn in Page 12
Mary Jo O'Hagan retired after 30 years on board of ed. Page 15
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ing to do in 2025, the money will go toward holiday lights,” Samantha Cools, the younger half of the Cools Team and Sabel’s girlfriend, said. In order to buy the lights in time for the holidays, all of the money had to be raised before the fall. In February, the pub kicked off the year by hosting its annual Chili Cook-Off, and raised about $1,200. Later in the year, Sabel hosted Pubpalooza, and raised roughly $6,900. The combined $8,000, helping the Baldwin Chamber of Commerce install eight new strings of holiday lights that now hang over Merrick Road. “He is the hardest-working person I’ve ever met,” Samantha Cools told the Herald. “This isn’t just a job for him. This isn’t just a business. This is his life. He thinks about this 24/7. When he’s not at work, he’s thinking about what he could be doing better at the pub, what he could be amplifying.” Sabel says he thinks of Baldwin as a family, not just the town where his business is located. He cares for the community because its residents care about him. During the pandemic, they supported his business, keeping the Irish Pub open, while he did everything he could to make sure his staff and their famiContinued on page 2
Shawn Sabel has owned Baldwin’s Irish Pub since 2018.
Herald File photo