Seaford
HERALD Citizen
CROP Walk raises thousands
Car blaze draws many firefighters
Plugging a leak at Cedar Creek
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OCTOBER 15 - 21, 2020
VOL. 68 NO. 42
A noisy parade of support for the president By TIMOTHY DENTON tdenton@liherald.com
Timothy Denton/Herald-Citizen
DONNA D. OF Merrick — “Everyone calls me that” — with her banner of support for the president.
A c rowd e s t i m at e d at between 300 and 500 gathered in Seaford and drove to Bellmore on the afternoon of Oct. 8 to demonstrate their support for President Trump, whose hospitalization for Covid-19 had ended three days earlier. The event was a raucous one, as supporters whooped, hollered and blew air horns while circulating among bannerbedecked vehicles in the afternoon sun. The mostly maskless mass of Trump fans was organized
by two supporters of the president from Suffolk County — Shawn Farash, of West Babylon, and Kevin Smith, of Lindenhurst. “It came together in about two days,” Smith said of the rally, which drew supporters from across Nassau and Suffolk countries. “We heard from our friends in Nassau that they needed some help, so we put the word out” via social media, text and phone. The pair have been organizing caravans for nearly a month. “We have things planned for every day this CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
Memorial park gives comfort in loss to pet owners By TIMOTHY DENTON tdenton@liherald.com
Just as in the lives of human loved ones, the time inevitably comes in relationships with animal companions when decisions must be made about their final arrangements. A few are so unsentimental that they simply put their pets out with the trash. Calling the local animal control is another efficient option. Those who recoil at the thought of treating their pets like food that has passed its sellby date may see burial in the backyard as the most practical choice, keeping pets close. And
when animals need the assistance of a veterinarian, the vet may sometimes make those final arrangements. For those who wish to memorialize their animal companions in a more formal way, though, it is hard to imagine a better option than Bideawee Memorial Park, on Beltagh Avenue in Wantagh. The surprisingly spacious park serves all the surrounding communities, including Seaford and Wantagh, and offers a range of services, from interments to cremations, as well as both annual and perpetual maintenance plans, according to memorial coordinator Helene Flor.
Just as humans are now living longer, so, too, are pets. The average life expectancy of house cats in the U.S. is about 15 years, according to the Spruce, a website dedicated to information about pets. “People who aren’t pet owners may smile at us,” the Rev. John Derasmo, pastor of Seaford’s St. James Catholic Church, said at the parish’s annual blessing of the animals on Oct. 4. “But for those of us who are ‘pet people,’ they are such a big part of our lives.” In addition to the Wantagh park, Bideawee also operates a memorial park in West Hampton, where the organization’s
crematorium is located. T he Wanta gh park was opened in 1916, and now has more than 65,000 pets resting peacefully in its shaded fields. Its most well known resident is Checkers, then Vice-President Richard Nixon’s beloved black and white cocker spaniel, which featured prominently in a famous 1952 speech widely cred-
ited with saving Nixon’s political career. Checkers died in 1964, and is interred in Section 1. While cats and dogs make up the vast majority of the park’s denizens, it also has a number of avian memorials — mainly parrots. A horse is buried in Section 4, and one family chose to memoCONTINUED ON PAGE 9