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HERALD $1.00
lIACF’s 41st photography show
Picketing for a new contract
Four arrested in Sept. 10 murder
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Vol. 86 No. 46
NoVEMBER 11 - 17, 2021
Calvin Andrew: profile of a Vietnam veteran By REINE BEthANy rbethany@liherald.com
Reine Bethany/Herald
CAlVIN ANdREw, tREASuRER of William Clinton Story American Legion Post 342, in front of the veterans monument outside the Freeport Memorial Library.
Ve t e r a n s D ay, u n l i k e Memorial Day, commemorates not only veterans who were killed in battle, or those whosurvived war and died later, but also those who are still living. Free por t’s American Legion Post 342 was set to hold its yearly observance on Thursday, after press time, at the monument in front of the Freeport Memorial Library. In a conversation with the Herald, Calvin Andrew, the post’s treasurer, recounted his own journey after returning
from the Vietnam War. “I enlisted in 1964 at age 18,” said Andrew, who is now 75. “I was in Vietnam for 11 months and 29 days, 1966 to ’67, on convoy duty.” Andrew was stationed near Saigon, close to Tan Son Nhut Air Force Base. He saw soldiers die in combat, though he saw no direct action himself because the convoys generally weren’t bothered on the road. For a 20-year-old AfricanAmerican, the months spent amid a distant and different culture brought some unexpected revelations. Continued on page 14
High distinction for young Freeport screenwriter By REINE BEthANy rbethany@liherald.com
In early October, Purchase College, part of the State Univers i t y o f N e w Yo r k s y s tem, announced that Laila Willson, a senior playwriting and screenwriting major, had been named to the inaugural class of the Peter Roth Internship Program at Manhattan’s Paley Center for Media. Wilson, 21, of Freeport, is one of only 20 students in the country selected for the program, the only dramatic writing major and the only SUNY student. Before earning the Peter Roth Internship, Wilson had racked up
numerous major awards and an-descent mother and Africaninternships, such as the SUNY American father, Wilson grew up Association of Council Members at the border of Freeport and and College Trustees Baldwin. She attendExcellence and Stued Baldwin’s public dent Initiative Scholschools. Fine art was arship. actually the starting Wilson was also point of her creative selected as one of just work. 20 recipients nation“In high school, I ally for the NAACP was in [Advanced Empowering ImagiPlacement] art classnation Scholarship, es,” Wilson said. “I powered by Kering. was accepted to the The NAACP awards [New York State Sumlaila wilson the $5,000 scholarship mer School for the to distinguished colArts] in 2016 and lege students majoring in cre- spent that summer at SUNY ative fields. Fredonia studying painting and The daughter of a Panamani- drawing.”
Wilson also attended Hofstra University’s Science & Technology Entry Program, and participated in Energeia for Teens, a community studies program that met at Molloy College. “We tried to keep Laila and her brother Niles busy and exposed to different things,” said Wilson’s mother, Nicole. “They fenced at the Freeport Recreation
Center, and went to Europe in the People to People travel program as young U.S. ambassadors in 2015. Laila also played travel and varsity volleyball at Baldwin High School.” The broadening effect of these programs took a new direction when Wilson was accepted to Pratt’s pre-college program on a Continued on page 12