_______ Lynbrook/east rockaway ______
HERALD Also serving Bay Park
$1.00
A donation to wounded warriors
Halloween festivities on tap
Local veterans are saluted
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VOL. 28 NO. 43
OCTOBER 21 - 27, 2021
LHS wing named for late BOE trustee an Oct. 13 ceremony with school administrators, board members and family members. The late Alicemarie BresniBresnihan died after a battle han was a mother figure to with cancer at 85 in May 2020. many: her nine children, her 21 She is survived by her loving grandchildren, the members of family, and her friends and colthe Board of Education and leagues throughout the Lynmany students in brook community. the Lynbrook Public As board president, Schools. Now, she is she was known for being honored for her deep devotion to her years of service the Lynbrook to the community — s ch o o l s a n d h e r her four and a half advocacy on behalf decades of commitof children. ment — which made B r e s n i h a n her one of the lonimproved Lynbrook gest-serving Lynfrom the “bottom brook school board up,” as she said in members and one of her 1975 campaign the longest-tenured DR. MELISSA speech for the school t r u s t e e s i n N ew board. She began as BURAK York state. an involved parent “Alice made all of Lynbrook Schools in the school comus better educators superintendent munity, later joined a n d b o a rd m e m the PTA and finally bers,” Superintenran for a board seat. dent Dr. Melissa Burak said. “I Her speech was read aloud by don’t think we’ll ever have Bresnihan’s daughter, Elaine, at someone like her again.” the ceremony, in which BresniIn her honor, Lynbrook High han listed her goals and promisSchool’s new wing — which es as a school board candidate. includes improved art, music “I feel it imperative that an and academic classrooms and articulate expression of all opened to students and faculty schools of thought be made at the start of the school year — was named in her honor during CONTINUED ON PAGE 13
By JULIA SWERDIN
lyn-ereditor@liherald.com
S
Anthony Hughes/Herald
A Homecoming hoot It was a happy Homecoming for the Lynbrook Owls, above, and the East Rockaway Rocks, as both teams were winners on Saturday. Stories, more photos, Page 3.
’He likes to touch and change lives’ East Rockaway author, 8, funds well in Africa By MIKE SMOLLINS msmollins@liherald.com
At 8 years old, Joe Petraro has accomplished more than many people do in a lifetime. He is a twice-published author, has helped the Lynbrook and East Rockaway communities in many ways, and also funded a well in Nigeria to bring clean water to villagers. “I think that helping people and making them smile helps
everything about how they feel,” Joe wrote in an email to the Herald. “The world can be kind of scary if you watch the news and listen to all the bad things, but if we think about all the really good things happening, life is pretty fun and cool. Helping others makes me feel happy.” Joe, an East Rockaway resident and third-grader at Holy Name of Mary School in Valley Stream, has written and published two children’s books. The
first was “The Pumpkin vs. The Boogie Man,” which came out in March 2020 and delves into using his knowledge from attending Steven’s Karate Academy in Lynbrook to overcome bullying through kindness, and the second, “Buddy My Best Friend Moves to a Place Called Heaven,” which he wrote from personal experience after the Petraro family dog, Buddy, died, and they CONTINUED ON PAGE 26
he was always a proponent of making Lynbrook a better place.