At chili cook-off, Irish Pub supports injured bartender

By ANDRE SILVA asilva@liherald.com

Samantha Berg, a bartender at the Irish Pub and a clerk at the Baldwin Public Library, was hit by two cars while crossing Merrick Road last November, and sustained several severe injuries.

Since then, Berg has been out of work and focused on recovery — and has faced mounting medical bills. To alleviate her financial challenges, more than 50 community members gathered at the pub’s fourth annual chili cook-off last Sunday to raise funds for her. The event was spearheaded by Susan Cools, president of the Baldwin Board of Education and a real estate agent, and her daughter, Samantha Cools, who directs the Cools Team at Compass Realty, in Rockville Centre.

The cook-off was created and sponsored by the Baldwin Rotary Club in 2019, but the club disbanded in 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic. The Coolses have since partnered with the pub to sponsor the event. This year their focus was on Berg, and Samantha Cools said they were able to raise just over $2,000, which will help cover her medical bills.

“It was by far our most successful event,” Samantha said.

SAMANTHA

Baldwin

“It was the most crowded, and the most amount of chili submitted, which speaks to the fact that people are trying to get out and support their community again.”

Cools explained that as a resident of Baldwin, it’s important to promote the community and its businesses.

The pub offered guests at the cook-off — who included library members, employees of local businesses and Annie Doresca, Susan Cools’s colleague on the school board — a free drink and unlimited chili tastings for a $20 donation, and a 50/50 raffle. The proceeds were donated to Berg.

Participants like Doresca had until last Friday to submit their spicy creations, and competed for a $200 cash prize donated by Renee Gonzalez, of the Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation in Freeport. Raffle participants, meanwhile, bid on baskets that contained prizes like a neon Bud Light NFL sign, glassware, CONTINUED ON PAGE 12