__________________ Nassau _________________
ALL RA DD HHEER
HERALD All the news of the Five Towns
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2021
lichoiceawards.com $1.00 Vol. 98 No. 31
Nomination Details inside
elected top junior firefighter
Donnelly opposes Kaminsky for D.A.
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JUlY 29 - AUGUST 4, 2021
For addicts, a way out Outpatient clinic in Lawrence battles ongoing opioid crisis the courts, but does some of the counseling herself. “We do diverse types of counseling,” she Though opioid overdose explained. “We do group, family, deaths were declining in Nassau psychological and social counselCounty just before the coronavi- ing. The goal is to work to rus pandemic, the ensuing address the addiction and the health crisis has behavior and the resulted in a bump emotions all at the in substance abuse same time. We have of all kinds that is a h u g e [ d r iv i n g now the focus of the while intoxicated] Committee on Drug program, and we Abuse at the Five offer individual sesTowns Community sions. We have a Center in Lawrence. medical director In 2018 there were who does all our 153 opioid overdose addiction assessdeaths in the county, ments and intake. and a year later the This is a non-intennumber dropped to sive outpatient clin112, according to staic, and we have the tistics from Healthability to refer them ny.gov. But drug out to a more intenabuse was clearly sive program.” not disappearing: In Phillip Lindsey, a 2018 there were 327 PhilliP participant in the outpatient emergen- liNDSeY program, has been cy department visits sober for 22 years, Program client for overdoses, and a but returned a year year later that total and a half ago for had increased to 386. therapy. “The program has been Portia Robinson, who directs reaching out to the community,” the Committee on Drug Abuse he said. “We’ve been using fliers program, not only oversees the to try and bring more people to community center’s staff of paid the program.” counselors and their work with clients, much of it mandated by Continued on page 15
By DANiel RoBeRTSoN drobertson@liherald.com
Jeffrey Bessen/Herald
She said yes Inwood Park was the setting for a surprise marriage proposal on July 23, and Far Rockaway resident Zahava Strock and Jonah Ganchrov, of Teaneck, N.J., will marry on Oct. 24. Story, additional photo, Page 19.
HHS grad Messiah Clark dies By JeFFReY BeSSeN jbessen@liherald.com
He had a unique name, he had an infectious smile, and when he played, he played to win — and to inspire his teammates. Messiah Ajayi Clark, a 2015 graduate of Hewlett High School who lived in Valley Stream, died in a July 21 car accident in Hempstead. He was 24. Given the Biblical name Messiah by his father, Isaac, Clark, by many accounts, did his best to live up to his majestic moniker. “He was free-spirited, a go-getter who wanted to flourish and made everyone smile,” Flora
MeSSiAh ClARK Ajayi said of her only child. “When he played sports, he played hard, and always wanted to share the winning as a team,
not as individuals. He wanted to boost others up and make everyone better.” Clark played football and basketball at Hewlett High, and was considered a prominent athlete, with good size and skill. A twoway starter in football, he carried the ball as a running back and tackled his opposite numbers as a linebacker. He was a forward on the basketball squad. Bill Dubin is a special-education teacher at Hewlett High who has taught in the Hewlett-Woodmere School District for nearly 35 years and has been the boys’ Continued on page 16
P
eople are starting to spread the word that there’s help back at the Five Towns Community Center again.