East Meadow
HERALD Kevin Thomas declares victory
Herald remembers Timothy J. Denton
Ambulatory center opens in E.M.
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NOVEMBER 19 - 25, 2020
VOl. 20 NO. 47
Decades later, a reconnection Family members from Ireland reunite in East Meadow They immediately started piecing together their family history, and Marsolais revealed A chance encounter in an another surprise to Price: Davy East Meadow community Face- Sr.’s son Mike McDonald grew book group reconnected mem- up in Merrick, just a few blocks bers of a family from Offaly, Ire- from where Price’s wife, Kelly, land, who had been out of con- spent her childhood. tact for decades. “It’s hard to Danny Price, 35, believe they were so who emigrated from close to us for so Offaly 11 years ago, long,” Price told the published a post in Herald as he greeted the East Meadow customers at the neighborhood group Noon Inn on Oct. 30, explaining that he its opening night. was from Ireland A we e k l at e r, and planned to open Price sat with Mike a bar called the McDonald, MarsoNoon Inn on East lais and her mother, DANNy PRIcE Meadow Avenue. Betty McDonald, at Kathy Marsolais, East Meadow the bar and shared 54, of East Meadow, resident stories about their messaged him to ask f a m i l y ’s l i f e i n where he came from Of faly — “Proin Ireland. When Price told her, nounced ‘awfully,’” McDonald she responded that her grandfa- said, “as in, I’m awfully glad to ther Davy McDonald had moved see you.” from Offaly to Jamaica, Queens, McDonald, 70, recalled when in 1926 and became a bus driver his brother, Davy McDonald Jr. in Manhattan. — Marsolais’s father — visited Price, it turned out, grew up Ireland as a teenager while the hearing similar stories about his British army was occupying it in great-uncle — Davy McDonald. the 1950s. One night, Davy Jr. The two exchanged photos of stayed out past a curfew set by McDonald, who died in 1966, con- the army. Rather than face punnected the dots and realized that they were cousins. Continued on page 5
By BRIAN STIEGlITZ bstieglitz@liherald.com
Brian Stieglitz/Herald
JASON NEwMAN, Of East Meadow, far left, Richard Tepper, of Wantagh, Rona Kauffman, of East Meadow, and Anony Baroukh, of East Meadow, volunteered at Temple B’nai Torah’s Thanksgiving Turkey Drive last Sunday.
Temple B’nai Torah has a congregation that lives to give
By BRIAN STIEGlITZ bstieglitz@liherald.com
Temple B’nai Torah, in Wantagh, has been busy throughout the coronavirus pandemic, despite remaining closed to in-person services and staying open only for limited use. Last Sunday, volunteers set up a drive-through Thanksgiving food drive in the temple’s parking lot, and collected 25 turkeys for the Wisdom Lane Middle School food pantry in Levittown. At the same time, volunteers were harvesting the last
of the produce in a Giving Garden the congregation created over the summer. And, in another section of the garden, younger students in the temple’s Mazel-Tots program were learning about Hanukkah by making dreidels out of Play-Doh and rolling menorah candles out of beeswax. “There’s a whole lot going on, and a lot of opportunities to get involved even though we’re not in the building,” said Rona Kauffman, an East Meadow resident who chairs the temple’s Social Action/ Social Justice Committee. The temple hosts a turkey
d r ive e a ch ye a r b e fo re Thanksgiving, with the recipient of the turkeys changing each year. In the past, they have gone to Island Harvest Food Bank and the Mary Brennan Interfaith Nutrition Network. Jan Friedman, a congregant from Wantagh, suggested the pantry at Wisdom Lane, where she has volunteered for 25 years during her tenure in various secretarial jobs at the school. Throughout the pandemic, members of the Social Action/Social Justice ComContinued on page 4
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t’s hard to believe they were so close to us for so long.