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Prepping against spam
10 years of Baldwin garden
Staying cool in the ToH
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Vol. 31 No. 28
JUlY 4 - 10, 2024
$1.00
An unfamiliar environment Domestic waterfowl struggle to survive in the wild can’t fly, they don’t have natural camouflage and they lack the instincts necessary for surJohn Di Leonardo wants you vival. Abandoned waterfowl, Di to know that releasing domestic waterfowl into the wild Leonardo said, are a problem doesn’ t save them, but is particularly in the Town of instead a death sentence. Hempstead, where he and other Last month, Humane Long Humane Long Island volunIsland, a nonprofit animal- teers have rescued hundreds of advocacy organizab i r d s i n w a t e rtion, received a call ways, parks and that two domestic preserves from ducklings had been Baldwin to Wantspotted wandering agh and Seaford. around Mill Pond “Unfortunately, i n Wa n t a g h . D i these animals have Leonardo, the very low survivgroup’s executive ability there,” he director, said that it said. “T he ones managed to retrieve we’ve rescued o n ly o n e o f t h e there, they’ve been ducklings. in bad shape. We’ve “I assume one JoHN Di lEoNARDo rescued ones with died in short order, Executive director, shattered wings, and then we were Humane Long Island we rescued ones able to rescue the with bacterial other one,” he said. infections, staph “So we already adopted that infections, eye infections. They one out to a home on Shelter cannot survive without human Island.” care.” Every year, Di Leonardo The spring and summer said, his organization rescues months are the worst, accordhundreds of domestic water- ing to Di Leonardo, because fowl, such as ducks and geese, ducks are purchased as Easter that are released into the wild gifts or used for hatching projon Long Island. He explained ects in classrooms, where, after that these animals are not preContinued on page 15 pared to live on their own: They
By CHARlES SHAW
cshaw@liherald.com
T
Ainsley Keir/Herald
Congratulations, Baldwin class of 2024! Baldwin High School seniors bid farewell as they graduated on June 26 at the newly renovated football field. Story, additional photos, Page 10.
Art was never on the drawing board Baldwin’s Lauren Reiss reflects on hosting two exhibits By HERNESTo GAlDAMEZ hgaldamez@liherald.com
Lauren Reiss, 74, of Baldwin, never pictured herself dabbling in the arts, and even hesitated when her girlfriend, Nancy Levy, invited her to join a drawing workshop at the Baldwin Public Library right before the coronavirus pandemic. “I really wasn’t interested,” Reiss said. “I wasn’t going to go, but my girlfriend wanted to go, so I went with her. That is what got me started in doing artwork. “It all began at the Baldwin library,” she added. Now, Reiss has recently hosted two art exhib-
its — one at the Baldwin library and another last month in her childhood town of North Bellmore. The North Bellmore exhibit was particularly meaningful to her because it not only featured her artwork, but also honored her late mother, Mildred Scherpich, who was a staple in the community, she said. Born in 1950 to Harold and Mildred Scherpich, Reiss grew up in North Bellmore, with her three older sisters, Millie, Nancy and Faith. She graduated from Jerusalem Avenue School, which is now a Nassau BOCES facility, and later Wellington C. Mepham High School. Reiss fondly remembers visiting the North Bellmore library Continued on page 4
hey’re as different from your wild ducks as your house cat is from a tiger.