HOLIDAY MAGIC
_______________ east meadow ______________
Dining Gi f t and
guide
Ideas to INSPIRE
HERALD Holiday Magic Dining and Gift Guide
Inside
Vol. 22 No. 48
Celebrating 50 years of Title IX
Kiwanis shows Thanksgiving spirit
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NoVEMBER 24 - 30, 2022
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$1.00
OBITUARY
A life of family, faith and service Nancy Ippolito, first matriarch of Pietro’s Pizzeria, is dead at 90 By MalloRY wIlSoN mwilson@liherald.com
Tim Baker/Herald
STEw lEoNaRD JR. stopped by the East Meadow Stew Leonard’s store on Nov. 17 to help hand out nearly 500 turkeys to local organizations in need.
Hearts warm and stomachs full Stew Leonard’s gives away turkeys for Thanksgiving By MalloRY wIlSoN mwilson@liherald.com
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or 43 years, Stew Leonard’s has held an annual turkey drive to help feed those in need during the Thanksgiving season. The tradition has been passed down for decades, and each time a new store opens, it joins in on the holiday goodness. Nearly 500 turkeys were given away on Nov. 17 outside the East Meadow Stew Leon-
ard’s. The beneficiaries include local churches, food pantries and other organizations that collect food for the needy. “It makes our Thanksgiving that much better,” said Stew Leonard Jr., the president and CEO of Stew Leonard’s. “Because we know that there are a lot of families out there who don’t have a great meal.” The start of providing turkeys to charities in the communities surrounding its
supermarkets started for Stew Leonard’s stores in 1979. At the East Meadow supermarket, which opened in 2017, the tradition is in its sixth year. Stew Leonard’s plans to give away 3,000 turkeys at its seven stores. Members of the East Meadow Fire Department, elected officials, Stew Leonard’s employees, and members of the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association Continued on page 4
Nancy Ippolito was a woman full of grace, and was a true inspiration to her family and all who knew her. She died on Nov. 7, at age 90. Born and raised on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, she married Peter Ippolito in 1954. The couple made their way to East Meadow that same year. T hey raised their four children there, Angelo Ippolito, 67, Carol Arigo, 66, Catherine Nancy Weinstein, 62, and Frank Ippolito, 59. “She was a wonderful human being,” Arigo said. “There was no one that she did not like. She truly loved everybody.” Ippolito spent more than 25 years working in the East Meadow School District, where she was the secretary to the principal of several schools, but spent most of her time in Meadowbrook Elementary School until she retired when she was 62.
“That was a big social life for her,” Arigo said. “Practically until she passed, she would still meet up with some of the teachers and secretaries for lunch.” Her life was full of faith, and she dedicated her time to helping those in need. She was an active member of the Rosary Society of St. Raphael’s Catholic Parish in East Meadow. She would help out with whatever the church needed, whether it was volunteering at the Christmas fair or helping out at baptisms. All four of her Ippolito children attended the parochial school at St. Raphael’s for eight years. Up until a few years before her death, she was also involved in the Parish Outreach office. When the family opened Pietro’s Pizzeria in 1976, Ippolito was the head delivery driver. “With me running out of the car,” Weinstein joked. Although she didn’t work there, because she had her job at Continued on page 2