_________________ FREEPORT _________________
Celebrating
May 12, 2022
HERALD Celebrating Nurses
ROOTED IN STRENGTH
$1.00
Inside
Vol. 87 No. 20
History museum’s new Sunday hours
Police open house Saturday
Page 5
Page 9
MAY 12 - 18, 2022
On Thursday nights, it’s all about the cars Baldwin-Motion Performance Group, which operated from 1967 to 1974, was a partnership Every Thursday Night car between the Baldwin Auto Commeets, at Fireman’s Field and pany, a Chevrolet dealership that Training Center in Baldwin, dated back to the early 1920s, and started back up last week, and Motion Performance, a high-prowill continue until Sept. 1. Orga- file speed shop with a reputation nized by Jer ry for building fast Brown, a Hook Chevys. Both were and Ladder Two headquartered in firefighter and the Baldwin, but were head of Baldwin’s known far beyond Hot Rod Associafor the quality of tion, the gettheir work. ■ Picnic tables to g ethers celeBrown turned available for enjoying brate Baldwin’s up the Chevy’s a meal rich car culture, mystique a notch while collecting when he pointed ■ A DJ plays classic money for a cause. out the pinstriprock Participants’ $3 ing, done by donations “fill the renowned detailer ■ Lighted area with boot” — a fireGary “the local ‘waterfront’ parking fighter’s boot — brush” Kupfer. and benefit the Brown went to ■ Swap and sale Steven Bar ry Kupfer two years welcome Memorial Scholago to request the arship fund. detailing work, Barry was a firebut was told by fighter who gave his life in ser- Kupfer that he was backed up a vice in 1975, and the proceeds of year. “So I waited a year to the the collection are given to a wor- day, knocked on the door and thy Baldwin High School senior said, ‘Remember me?’” Brown at the end of the school year. recounted with a laugh, “and he On May 5, Brown, 57, proudly did … He’s in his 70s, and still displayed his 1948 Chevy, which with steady hands.” he got from the iconic BaldwinBrown said that as more peoMotion car shop. The original Continued on page 11
By KArINA KoVAC kkovac@liherald.com
thursday nights
Reine Bethany/Herald
INNoVAtIVe DAYCAre CorP. owner Janna Rodriguez, left, and Sunshine Dreams Director Mary Ann Arroyo joined in A Day Without Childcare, a national event to advocate for more government support of child care providers.
Day cares close for a day, sending message to Congress By reINe BetHANY rbethany@liherald.com
Children deserve the best. And their daily caretakers deserve far better than what they get. Janna Rodriguez, 32, owner and operator of Innovative Daycare Corp., on Centre Street in Freeport, has been sending that message to politicians at every level of government for over two years. Rodriguez invited her participating families, other child care providers, politicians and the public to her home-based business in support of a national event called A Day Without Childcare.
On Monday she closed the doors of her facility as if to strike, to gain government support for child care from the earliest stages of infancy, not only from the county or the state, but also from Congress. Rodriguez decorated the backyard of her home with balloons, rented a small bounce house and laid out a long row of tables with catered food. Supportive organizations — Emblem Health, Docs for Tots and two Project Hope partners, Hispanic Counseling Center and the Mental Health Association of Nassau County — set up tables and spoke with visitors. Childcare Changemakers, organized under Continued on page 15