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Baldwin Herald 02-16-2023

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Vol. 30 No. 8

FEBRUARY 16 - 22, 2023

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Young researcher Gabrielle Augustin on her way to D.C. By ANDRE SIlVA asilva@liherald.com

Joe Abate/Herald

Post 246 hosts veterans’ brunch Town of Hempstead Clerk Kate Murray, left, Post Commander Stu Cohen, and Town Receiver of Taxes Jeanine Driscoll gathered at Baldwin American Legion Post 246 last Saturday for a lunch that helped fund the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.

Gabrielle Augustin, a senior at Sacred Heart Academy from Baldwin, is one of 11 students at the Hempstead school who have been invited to present their research at the 2023 Association for Psychological Science Convention May 25-28 in Washington, D.C. Augustin, 17, the senior class president, an officer in the Black Student Union and a mentor to freshman and sophomores, was asked to share her research project on racial inequity in the educational system, titled “Barriers to Opportunities: The Effects of Non-Representation on the Education of Minority Students,” alongside undergraduate and

graduate students as well as professional researchers at the annual forum. Stephen Sullivan, Sacred Heart’s research director, said the students, juniors and seniors, submitted summaries of their research to the association on Dec. 15, and were notified that they had been selected to participate in the convention late last month. The students will travel by Amtrak to Washington, Sullivan said, where they will make their presentations at the Washington Hilton on May 25. On May 26, Augustin and her classmates will spend the day touring national monuments, and the following day they will gather to watch other researchers make Continued on page 4

First Baldwin WinterFest celebrates cultural diversity By ANDRE SIlVA asilva@liherald.com

Bert Gervais, 38, a native of Haiti who now lives in Baldwin, helped organize Baldwin’s first WinterFest Jan. 29, with help from a number of Baldwin businesses. Gervais, an educator, actor, producer and co-founder of Genius Potential Inc., brought the inaugural WinterFest to life, in partnership with the New Lifestyles barbershop, at OMMA Martial Arts Center on Grand Avenue. He said he created the event to highlight the cultural variety of Baldwin by featuring a number of local artists, musi-

cal performances and businesses, free and open to everyone. “I want to create a cultural hub and celebrate all that Baldwin has to offer,” Gervais said. “After spending a month on tour and shooting a television show, I felt so lonely, missed home, and felt some warm soup, live violin, and good company will help cure some of the winter blues.” Gervais came up with the idea for WinterFest after spending three weeks in Kansas City, where he was a contestant in Season Seven of “The Blox,” a reality television show which he said is similar to “Shark Tank.” Before that, Gervais said, he spent three months on a

“Hamilton”-style improvisation tour about college that visited more than 15 states. The tour was produced by Genius Potential Inc., an entertainment and education company based in Brooklyn that he co-founded with David Horne in 2019, and was called, “Surviving College. “I was on the road nonstop, and I hadn’t seen my friends and family in Baldwin in a while, and thought it would be nice to get everyone together for an event,” Gervais said of WinterFest. He wanted to feature culture in the form of art, music and food, and the event, he said, was all about bringing the communi-

ty together. He came up with the idea for a community winter event when he visited New Lifestyles Barbershop, on Grand Avenue. When he returned from filming for “The Blox,” Gervais said, he realized that the Baldwin community doesn’t have many winter events. Gervais said he hired Mylez Gittens, a Queens violinist,

asked his cousin Dominique Gervais to perfor m choreographed dances to pop music, and invited local business people, like Fred Lherisson, founder of Boom-Boom Entertainment NYC, and Nicholas Grant, owner of Linyage Apparel, to set up vendor booths in the martial arts center. Continued on page 16


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