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HERALD Dems sue for gerrymandering
New florist in East Meadow
Car show camaraderie
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Vol. 23 No. 32
$1.00 $1.00
august 3 - 9, 2023
Making her ideas come to life on film won awards, including Best Long Island Film in 2016 at the Long Island International Film Shari Umansky could not Expo, and Best Short Film at the continue to suppress her cre- Fort Myers Beach Film Festival ative juices. A job behind a desk that same year. It stars actress wasn’t for her. Now, she puts Rena Sofer as the female lead pen to paper and lives her wild- character. est dreams every day. Umansky, who is Jewish, said She started out the idea for the piece her career pursuing came from a nightsinging and acting mare that she had as before getting hurt a child. Umansky in a car accident said that as she which led her to take lear ned about the an unexpected step Holocaust, she startback. After a decade ed to have nightof working a 9-to-5 mares related to job, she knew she what she was learnwanted to do someing, and they continthing else. Since shaRI uMaNsKY ued into her adultthen, she has written hood. She decided several plays and t h a t m ay b e s h e films, and won numerous should write them down. So, in awards. 2010, she did. The now North Carolina resi“As I became a writer, and dent grew up in Bellmore before had this recurring nightmare, I raising her children in East thought maybe if I wrote it Meadow. She is best known for down it would stop happening,” her film “Immunity,” a 20-min- she said. “But what happened ute short set in 1942 Auschwitz, instead was there was a story, where a deadly game is being with characters and places and played out by a by a young SS events.” officer and his once beloved Before it was turned into a teacher, a Jew who now finds short film, it was a stage play that her most prized pupil has with a sold-out run at the Manbecome her tormentor. hattan Repertory Theater. Now, The film, released in 2016, Continued on page 12
By MalloRY WIlsoN
mwilson@liherald.com
Dan Tommasino/Herald
‘Keep on dreaming’ with the Eli Young Band The Eli Young Band, a country music group, hit the stage at Eisenhower Park’s Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre on July 27 as part of Nassau County’s free outdoor concert series. Story, more photos, Page 3.
One family’s way of giving back turned into a community effort By MalloRY WIlsoN mwilson@liherald.com
What started out as one family’s way of giving back has turned into a community effort. About 10 years ago, East Meadow native Amanda Skoros decided to get her family involved with Birthday Wishes, a nonprofit organization that helps homeless children and their families celebrate birthdays. Now, years later, community members drop supplies at her house year-round. Birthday Wishes offers two types of party programs, either throwing a party for a child at their shelter, or creating a Birthday-in-a-Box with supplies and gifts — everything a parent would need to throw their child a party.
The organization was founded in 2002 in Massachusetts. Now it serves children living in more than 200 family shelters and transitional living facilities across Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Long Island. According to its website, over 26,000 homeless children, up to 17 years old, have Birthday Wishes parties each year. When the Skoros family got involved a decade ago, they bought items for the Birthday-in-a-Box program, but they eventually began baking cakes for children in homeless shelters, too, before the organization transitioned to sending mug cakes — a small packet filled with cake batter that can be made into a cake with just milk or water in a microwave — to children. Continued on page 9