______________ VALLEY STREAM _____________
September 15, 2022
Empowering a brighter future
Vol. 33 No. 39
HERALD Nassau County fights opioid crisis
Higher Education
Inside
Page 10
SEPTEMBER 22 - 28, 2022
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A pocket of nature sullied with trash floating waste. Random debris, from rusted beverage cans to coffee cup lids Just east of Central Avenue, to snack bags, can regularly be sandwiched between rows of res- seen floating on the surface, just idential streets and Sunrise feet away from waterfowl. Highway, is Mill Pond Park, a The torn remains of a Panda small, unassuming freshwater Express wrapper, rainbow conpond. fetti, and other misThis pocket of cellaneous waste nature offers resialso littered the dents little in the grass by the pond way of recreational earlier this month. services and faciliResidents like ties, compared with Muhammad Tahir those found at the say the pollution has village’s Arthur J. been an ongoing Hendrickson Park issue. “I’ve lived or even the Village here for over a dozen Green. ye a r s , a n d I ’ ve But residents say noticed how Mill that much of the Pond has gotten dirtpark’s char m is ier and dir tier,” attributable to the MUHAMMAd Tahir said. “Many fact that large poryears ago, people TAHiR tions of its greenery used to swim there, remain relatively Resident b u t n ow i t h a s untouched by become swamp-like. humans. Families of It’s unbearable to see a hallmark geese and ducks mill about in of Valley Stream look like this.” the open grass. The pond itself is Two years ago, Tahir helped teeming with fish, insects and all spearhead a community effort to sorts of aquatic and semi-aquat- remove the debris and do a clean ic life. sweep of the once-pristine pond The wildlife seems to feel to try and restore it to some semright at home, seemingly blance of what it once was. unfazed by the presence of its He also created a petition on much less pleasant neighbors: Continued on page 9
By JUAN lASSo jlasso@liherald.com
LON, VAL
Courtesy Deliah Roberts
BlAiR GRAHAM, lEfT, and Nina Munafo, right, members of Troop 99, the only all-female Boy Scout troop in Valley Stream, helped aspiring Eagle Scout Gabriella Burke with her service project.
Teen could be first female Eagle Scout in Valley Stream By JUAN lASSo jlasso@liherald.com
F
ew things are harder to find in the Boy Scouts of America than an all-girl Boy Scout troop. For over a century, BSA has shaped its identity as a boys-only organization specializing in wilderness activities. But all-girl troops do exist, thanks in large part to a
change in scouting’s bylaws beginning in 2017 that opened the door for girls to join their ranks. There are now nearly a dozen of these troops scattered around Long Island, and one of them is in Valley Stream. The founders of the village’s troop, formed in 2019, are a daughter-mother duo: Girl Scout Gabriella Burke, who was 11 at the time, and her mom, Lisa Burke. LON, VAL
Troop 99 was originally formed as a clever way to get around a pronouncement made by the Girl Scouts of Nassau County that year, banning then Girl Scout Gabriella’s troop from attending the village’s Camporee, an annual weekend-long event, in an effort to advance the GSNC’s mission of only serving girls. This effectively put an end to a 30-year tradition comminContinued on page 15
September 22, 2022
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any years ago, people used to swim there, but now it has become swamp-like.