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FINAL DAYS! DOORS CLOSE FOREVER
DECEMBER 29, 2022 - JANUARY 4, 2023
What’s What’s
INSIDE INSIDE
'We're in this world to serve others' By Jeffrey Bessen
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A Hewlett resident won the SoBol contest. Christina Lahey took the most photos of potholes and won a $20 gift card. Page 7
Five Towns residents registered their anger. Community members gathered to protest overdevelopment. Page 15
Gary Schall died at 67. The former Lawrence School District superintendent was thought of as a people person. Page 19
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Vol. 100 No. 1
successful entrepreneur who has built five businesses since he left a prosperous career as a trader on the floor of the American Stock Exchange, Cal Nathan dived into volunteer community involvement over a dozen years ago, and has made his mark. Nathan, 51, has made the most of his business prowess, helping a number of organizations, especially Community Chest South Shore, formerly Five Towns Community Chest, a 91-year-old charitable group that aims to help neighbors in need. The president of Community Chest for the past five years, Nathan, who lives in Woodmere, has helped the organization navigate the changing Five Towns landscape and build relationships with local groups and schools, both public and private. For all of his efforts, the Herald is proud to name Nathan its 2022 Person of the Year. “I took over, became president, when the organization’s board members’ kids had moved out and there was no more connection with the kids on the Youth Board or going to high school,” Nathan said. “I was able to keep the organization relevant. If you aren’t relevant, there’s no attention, no support.” Community Chest has given more than $1.2 million to its community partners over the past three years, he noted. The Five Towns Community Center, in Lawrence; the Five Towns Early Learning Center, in Inwood; the Domestic Harmony Foundation, in Hicksville; and the Marion & Aaron Gural JCC, in Cedarhurst, receive financial support from Nathan’s organization. Chest’s in-house program Neighbors Helping Neighbors aids individuals and families in need. “Big or small needs, we know that help is always a phone call away,” Early Learning Center Director Pepper Robinson wrote in an email. “(Community) Chest, for over 50 years, has supported the center and is a safety net for the center, the children and their families. Under Cal’s leadership, through the pandemic, that support has
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Cal NathaN It was taught in my home when someone reaches out, you should extend a hand to help. Cal Nathan continued.” Under Nathan’s watch, Community Chest launched Vision 2020 — a program that supports nonprofits — just before the pandemic struck in March 2020. The program did not take a backseat to the virus, as Community
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Chest distributed grants totaling $500,000 to several nonprofits, and between 2020 and 2021 it loaned out another half-million dollars. In March 2021, Community Chest partnered with the Manhattan-based Hebrew Free Loan Society on a $1 million loan program that offered small businesses in the Five Towns and surrounding communities interest-free, nofee loans of up to $50,000. The goal was to keep existing small businesses operating and help new ones with strong business plans. “I have a deep understanding that we’re in this world for a purpose, to serve others,” Nathan said. “It was taught in my home when someone reaches out, you should extend a hand to help. I saw my dad write out checks.” Nathan grew up in Oceanside, and attended high school in Forest Hills. He earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s in marketing and management from the Stern School of Business at New York University. He and his wife, Janine, have four children: Brian, 24, and Matthew, 20, and Elie, 17, and Erin, 13. In 1998, Nathan’s entrepreneurial spirit moved him to leave the stock exchange’s trading floor, and he bought a small special-events company, NYFF. Starting with birthday parties and social affairs, he built the business into a company that served national and global clients. Through the years he has founded other businesses, including All Seated, an online event platform that connects thousands of hosts, vendors and venues, and StringBean Technologies, a corporate real estate tech software platform that supports facility Continued on page 2 Courtesy Ellen Wolff
Woodmere's Cal Nathan is the Herald Person of the Year.