_______ Lynbrook/east rockaway ______
HERALD Also serving Bay Park
$1.00
An all-star in health care
Helping out wounded warriors
New athletic director in E.R.
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VOL. 28 NO. 39
SEPTEMBER 23 - 29, 2021
Program helps special-needs students By KATHERINE FENTON lyn-ereditor@liherald.com
Long Island children of all abilities enjoyed some time in the spotlight on Aug. 29 with the help of Minute Masters, an organization created by two educators from Lynbrook that produces inclusive educational videos. Minute Masters is a subscription-based video series that was started by Lynbrook natives Kerrie Hall, a pediatric occupational therapist, and Julia Garvey, a special-education teacher, with the goal of fostering confidence and independence in children of varying abilities. Hall and KERRIE Garvey began offerLynbrook ing inclusive dance classes in 2018, and they decided to create minute-long videos of their lessons to help students remember what they had learned from week to week. Wanting to reach more children, Hall and Garvey were inspired to take the idea a step further and create a series of videos on a wide range of educa-
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Courtesy Media Origins Inc
Cheers to the return of Oktoberfest Lynbrook’s Oktoberfest returns to Greis Park at 3 p.m. on Oct. 2, a year after the village had to cancel the event in 2020. Thousands of people attended the inaugural outing in 2019, including Tim Flynn and his son, Timmy.
Female footballer gives Owls a kick LHS senior makes history on the gridiron By MIKE SMOLLINS msmollins@liherald.com
Lynbrook senior Olivia Vuotto said she never thought about playing football, but jumped at the chance to become a kicker for the varsity team when head coach Stephen LoCicero approached her. Now she’s making history one kick at a time as the only girl to ever score points for the Owls on the gridiron. “It’s honestly so much fun,”
said Vuotto, who is the Herald’s spotlight athlete this week. “I think that the best part is just being able to be part of the team. All the boys are very supportive, and they make it better. They’re so encouraging, and the coaches are so encouraging, and I couldn’t feel any better to be a part of the team this year.” LoCicero was hosting the first day of camp on Aug. 23 and in need of a kicker when he glanced over toward the track
and saw Vuotto, 17, taking part in a captains’ practice for the girls’ varsity soccer team, on which she is a midfielder. Having coached her in basketball in the past and her father, Joe Vuotto, in football when LoCicero was the wide receiver coach for Lynbrook in 1991, it dawned on him to ask her to kick extra points for the varsity squad. After a tryout, LoCicero CONTINUED ON PAGE 15
tional topics. Because each video in the series is a minute long or less, they dubbed it Minute Masters. To celebrate the official launch of Minute Masters, they hosted a Red Carpet Premiere at Bellmore Movies and Showplace on Aug. 29. The children who were featured in the videos got a chance to dress up, pose for photos on the red carpet and see themselves on the big screen. “The Red Carpet premiere was for the children who starred in our videos,” Hall said. “Our videos have children both with and without special needs, so we have representation HALL of all learner types within it. We just wanted to do whatever we could to make them all feel like superstars and give them and their families something to celebrate, so it was a really, really special day.” Hempstead resident Karen Navarro, who attended the event with her 10-year-old daughter,
e just wanted to do whatever we could to make them all feel like superstars.
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