_________________ bellmore ________________
HERALD ohav Shalom hosts open house
Middle schools move up in style
Retiring teacher’s last concert
Page 3
Page 10
Page 18
Vol. 26 No. 25
Cancer journey documentary set to premiere
The Garden at Temple B’Nai Torah celebrates harvest By MICHAEl MAlASZCZYK mmalaszczyk@liherald.com
It all started with a simple question: Can we have a garden like this? When Rona and Bob Kauffman, two members of Wanta gh’s Temple B’Nai Torah, attended a class led by Rabbi Daniel Bar-Nahum and the Rev. Mark Genzsler, of St. Francis Episcopal Church in Bellmore, a number of years ago, comparing interfaith scriptures, the subject of the garden at St. F r a n c i s c a m e u p. Intrigued, the Kauffmans met with Susan Salem, the garden’s creator and coordinator, and became regular volunteers there, were parishioners grow fresh produce to fight local hunger. Salem and the Kauffmans wanted to bring that effort to Temple B’Nai Torah — which was originally known as Suburban Temple before it merged with Massapequa’s Temple Judea in 2008 and East Meadow’s Temple EmanuEl in 2018. The interest grew stronger when Temple B’Nai Torah brought the temple’s youth group to the St. Francis Garden in 2019 for a Sukkot activity. A year later, B’Nai Torah took action. “When Covid hit, we realized that if we were ever going to do this, we should do it now, because Continued on page 19
$1.00 $1.00
JUNE 15 - 21, 2023
treatment, she decided to begin recording herself — short selfie videos documenting everything If there’s one thing that she was experiencing. Christina Mathieson-Segura Accumulating upward of 150 wants women with a recent can- videos, her journey is now officer diagnosis to know, it’s that cially a documentary, “You’ll Be “I’m OK, and you’ll be OK too.” OK Too: Christina’s Journey,” T h at m o t t o u l t i m at e ly set to premiere on June 20 at the became the driving force in Bellmore Movies, at 7 p.m. Mathieson-Segura’s Mathieson-Segura own cancer journey also created a nonand inspired her not profit of the same just to be a survivor, name, with the misbut to take what sion of empowering happened to her and women to get tested transform her most for cancer, giving a vulnerable moments voice to cancer surinto something vivors and creating beautiful. a community that “I wanted my revolves around feeljour ney to be of ing at peace with a value to somebody, CHRIStINA diagnosis. someday,” she said. MAtHIESoN“I had the worst anxHer journey iety of my life. I SEgURA “When I was 17, would go to sleep, Breast cancer my mother was and I would wake up survivor diagnosed with at 2 in the morning, b r e a s t c a n c e r, ” gasping for air, realMathieson-Segura izing I had cancer — and it was said. “At that time, in the late debilitating.” ’70s, it was like a kiss of death.” She is now 58, and it’s been Her mother underwent a sinnearly three years since Mathie- gle mastectomy during a time son-Segura was diagnosed with when reconstructive surgery breast cancer, and two years was not an option, and she also since she finished treatment. Throughout her months of Continued on page 4
By JoRDAN VAlloNE jvallone@liherald.com
Shauna Le Claire/Herald
WHEN lIfE gIVES you lemons, you sell lemonade. That’s what an 8-and-under Merrick Mayhem baseball team did last Saturday at the Merrick Bellmore Little League World Series, to raise money for ALS research. Umpire Rich Blue purchased a cup from team members.
Amazing $4,200 raised for the ALS Association By JoRDAN VAlloNE jvallone@liherald.com
An 8-and-under baseball team with Merrick Mayhem, a travel baseball and softball organization, rallied behind a team member’s family last Saturday to raise money for and awareness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. ALS is an incurable chronic condition that weakens muscles and impacts physical functions. The team’s head coach, Russ Berman, of Merrick, whose son Charlie is one of the players, said the squad has been together for a little over a year, and the boys have been learning and growing together over the last few seasons. The team recently won the 2023 East Coast Baseball Spring League championship in
the 8U bracket. Berman and the team’s other coaches had recently been thinking about hosting some fundraisers, he said, to raise money for entry fees for tournaments and rental fees for practice fields. A better idea sprouted from their conversations, when an assistant coach, Russ Miller, suggested that they host a fundraiser for the ALS Association, because his mother, Susan Miller, has the disease. “Russ brought up the ALS foundation, because he did some stuff for that outside of the travel baseball team, and thought it would be a great cause for the team to rally behind because it’s near and dear to his heart,” BerContinued on page 2
I
wanted my journey to be of value to somebody, someday.