East Meadow
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AT 1PM
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OCTOBER 29 - NOVEMBER 4, 2020
Early voting in full swing
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Students revel in the beauty of fall
14 VOl. 20 NO. 44
More than just costumes MOL934_VirtualOH_Po
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9/24/20 4:36 PM
Four friends dedicate their Halloween to personal causes By BRIAN STIEGlITZ bstieglitz@liherald.com
Brian Stieglitz/Herald
The pick of the patch Madison Williams, 2, of East Meadow, selected a pumpkin to paint last Sunday at Cipriano Nursery and Florist during its weekend fall craft session. Story, more photos, Page 8.
Lifelong best friends Lyla Meslin, Samantha Panzica, Ella Merkle and Ashley O’Connor have been planning their Halloween costumes since August. Each suggested a number of different ideas for a group theme, but they couldn’t agree on any of them. Then they brainstormed one that would give them more than just an outfit to wear while trickor-treating. The friends, all fifth-graders at Parkway Elementary School in East Meadow, will dress as OPI nail polish bottles. They will sport black hats and shirts to
represent the bottle cap, and each will wear a different colored tutu and pair of socks to resemble the nail polish. Each color they chose represents a personal cause, and on Halloween the girls will set up a booth and collect donations for their causes at Ella’s house, on Taylor Avenue in East Meadow, from 2 to 4 p.m. Lyla will wear red and raise money for the Marfan Foundation; Samantha choose purple, to raise funds for the Alzheimer’s Association; Ella picked pink, for breast cancer, and will donate to the American Cancer Society; and Ashley will sport blue, and Continued on page 3
Communities rally behind a 97-year-old WWII vet By BRIAN STIEGlITZ bstieglitz@liherald.com
The Rev. Eugene Purvis sat on the front porch of his Freeport home and told stories about his service in World War II to a group of high school students, most of whom hope to serve in the U.S. military. One such story recounts the time Purvis was serving on the Pacific island of Saipan with the 20th Army Air Corps, when he was the sole survivor in his unit of an attack by Japanese bombers. Purvis, 97, the former pastor of the Naomi Temple AME Zion Church in Roosevelt, has a men-
tal scrapbook of similar experiences that shaped him. He shared it with the students, who were among roughly 60 volunteers from East Meadow and Freeport who visited him last Saturday to help clean his house and do some long-needed home improvements. Purvis is an active member of Freeport Cares, a community group that works with the school district and village to promote programs and activities for Freeport families. As he aged, members of Freeport Cares took turns caring for him and his wife, Sylvia. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, they delivered meals to the Purvises’ home and
discovered that it was in a state of disrepair. One member of Freeport Cares, Christine Waters, taught at Barnum Woods Elementary School, in the East Meadow School District, for 25 years, until 2017. She is now co-president of the East Meadow Association for Retired Teachers. Over the summer, Patrick Pizzo, the East Meadow School District’s assistant superintendent for business and finance, invited Waters to join a task force he was forming called the Economic Opportunity for All Youth Committee. One of its missions is to help young people find employment, mentorship
and apprenticeship opportunities. Waters connected the committee with Purvis, and Pizzo quickly began looking for ways to help the pastor and his wife. In August, Pizzo told the Promise of Hope Foundation, a Copiague nonprofit that offers families in need financial and emotional support, about Purvis. They installed a handicapped-
accessible bathroom on the first floor of the Purvises’ home and fixed some plumbing problems. Then, about three weeks ago, Pizzo wanted to organize an event for students to help clean the home, pave its driveway and do other renovations. He reached out to Jeff Rosenking, a former member of the East Meadow Continued on page 4