______________ VALLEY STREAM _____________
Sit back and relax.
HERALD Ex-Knicks player wants donations
Page 6
Page 18
Vol. 34 No. 50
DECEMBER 7 - 13, 2023
$1.00
THE LEADER IN PROP ERTY TAX REDUCT ION
Apply online at mptrg .com/heraldnote or call 516.715.1266
Maidenbaum Proper ty Tax Reduction Gro 483 Chestnut Street, up, LLC Cedarhurst, NY 11516 | Hablamos Españo l
123844 1111 3 028
RVC Diocese offers $200M
Get Results. Sign Up Today!
Fresh foods first at Central Food Market
Dancing in the frosty groove Anaya Hodges, 2, enjoying herself at the village’s annual Winterfest at Arthur J. Hendrickson Park last Saturday. Story, more photos, Page 3.
improving the diets of its lowincome shoppers. “With this particular store, we The produce display at Cen- gave them funding to improve tral Food Market, a recently the baskets they needed to hold opened corner grocery store nes- produce on the shelves. We gave them shopping bastled in a commercial kets and carts,” said strip on North CenGuerrero-Granshaw. tral Avenue, has “We may not think never looked better. about it, but it’s the Thanks to the little things about Cornell Cooperative the visibility and Extension of Suffolk presentation of the County’s Healthy fruits and vegetables Corner Store initiathat are part of the tive, fruits and vegepurchase process.” tables are better On Nov. 6, $10 showcased at the coupons providing store owned by Imtidiscounts on fruits, az Khan. vegetables, low-fat Khan was milk, and water approached months were given to shopago by Italia Guerrepers in collaboraro-Granshaw, the tion with the office organization’s nutriof Assemblywoman tion educator, and ItAlIA GUERRERoMichaelle Solages. h e r t e a m , w h o GRANShAw “ We g ave o u t offered to improve nutrition educator, $10,000 worth of his store’s produce Cornell Cooperative community coudisplay and provide Extension pons,” said Guerrea one-day promotion ro-Grenshaw. “And to entice the store’s customers to shop for more fresh that was to help this store get more visibility and traction fruits and vegetables. It all ties into the program’s around the community. What the larger mission to bring fresher, store needed, determined what we purchased for them.” healthier food to the shelves of local corner stores in the hope of Continued on page 19
By JUAN lASSo
jlasso@liherald.com
I
Christine Rivera/Herald
An early-reading specialist is Willow Road’s new principal By JUAN lASSo jlasso@liherald.com
Cindy Gervasi was named principal of Valley Stream District 13’s Willow Road Elementary School on Oct. 13. She succeeded Rosalie Ambrosio, who announced her retirement earilier this year. Gervasi came to the district in 2005 with little expectation that she would stay. She was initially an on-call substitute teacher, but eventually dedicated almost two decades of her career to the district. In 2006 she became a reading teacher at Howell Road Elementary School. She served as a reading specialist for the dis-
trict for 14 years, and moved to Willow Road in 2019. Gervasi earned a bachelor’s degree in early childhood and elementary education and history from CUNY Queens College, a master’s in reading education from St. John’s University, and a certificate of educational leadership from Stony Brook University. She is slated to complete her doctorate in education in 2026, with the American College of Education. “I began my career as a first-grade classroom teacher,” Gervasi said in a statement, “and that is where I fell in love with early literacy, which prompted me to receive my master’s degree in Continued on page 12
t’s the little things about the visibility and presentation of the fruits and vegetables that are part of the purchase process.