2021 HAPPY NEW YEAR to all our readers
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Nassau
HERALD 2020
YEAR IN REVIEW
All the News of the Five Towns DECEMBER 31, 2020 - JANuARY 6, 2021
What’s
INSIDE
‘She’s the gift that keeps on giving’
By JEFFREY BESSEN jbessen@liherald.com
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Courtesy Sofia xx/Herald Maravilla
The coronavirus pandemic shut xx down scholastic sports across Long0 Page Island. Page 6
Matthew Ferremi/Herald xx/Herald
Early xx voting attracted many because of the pandemic and the0 Page intense presidential race. Page 9
Courtesy Premier Rehabilitation xx/Herald
Covid-19 vaccinations were xx administered at Premier Rehab. Page 0
asha Young, of Inwood, created Gammy’s Pantry over two years ago, inspired by her grandmother Betty Young, whom she called Gammy. From a small space inside the Five Towns Community Center in Lawrence, which offered food to those who needed it, Young expanded the pantry to include clothes in 2019. When the coronavirus pandemic struck, she ramped up the pantry’s operations, and it became part of a Long Island Cares site that now distributes even more food to people victimized by the economic downturn. Along the way, Young has inspired and mobilized a group of roughly 30 teenage volunteers to help her manage the philanthropic activities at the community center. They have created a community garden, and advocated for the Nassau County Police Department to re-establish Police Athletic League programs at the center. For these and many other volunteer endeavors, the Herald is proud to name Young its 2020 Person of the Year. A native of Martinsburg, W.Va., Young, 43, grew up with a strong sense of what is important in life. Her family included educators, high school principals and employees of the DuPont chemical company. “I learned to be responsible, respectful, to leave someplace better than you found it,” she said. Young learned a particularly valuable lesson in elementary school. When she was in third grade, her teacher took her and some other children to a homeless shelter.“A good friend of mine lived in the shelter, and I didn’t know he had a whole different life,” she recalled. “It was an eyeopener.” After her parents separated, Young said, Gammy helped raise her, and instilled in her the values she still holds dear. “Just
SaSha YouNg xx asha is the biggest thing xxx to this to happen community in a longxx time. I no longer prayxx for her, I pray to her. She’s a saint.
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PEtE SoBol Infections as of Dec. 25
For BrEAKING
NEWS
HERALD PERSON oF tHE YEAR
the way she lived every day — she always looked for the good in everyone, and treated everyone the same,” Young said. “She took care of every little thing on the property, and you couldn’t kill an ant.” Betty Young died on Christmas Day 2018. Sasha, who has a degree in psychology from American Public University, an online institution headquartered in Charles Town, W.Va., moved to New York in 1995. She and her partner, Robert Acosta, have three daughters: Genesis Acosta, 26, who was adopted, and twins Alexandra and Alexis Acosta, 15, who are sophomores at Lawrence High School. The pantry grew from a toy collection for families in need that Young and another parent, Dan Segarra, began at the Number Two School about eight years ago. Nerthi Sanchez, who runs the Middle School Program at the community center, has seen Young in action for the past five years. “All of her endeavors stem from a deep-rooted love for God and mankind,” Sanchez said, noting Young’s grandmother’s influence on her — and emphasizing that all of this is volunteer work. “The pandemic hit hard, [exacerbating] food insecurities throughout this and other communities across our great nation,” Sanchez said. “She instinctively sprang into action, combating food insecurities at a higher level.” In 2020, Young collaborated with local organizations such as the Cedarhurstbased Rock and Wrap It Up!, run by Syd Mandelbaum, Five Towns stores such as Trader Joe’s and Wall’s Bakery and others, and food poured into the community center. In June, Gammy’s Pantry joined forces with Long Island Cares, the Freeport-based hunger assistance organization. The need was obvious, and the numbers are sobering. In November, the Long Island Cares site at the community center served 1,467 adults, 2,643 children and 268 seniors, according to the figures that are Continued to page 10
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Vol. 98 No. 1
3,543
CoMMuNItY uPDAtE
Infections as of Dec. 18 3,401