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HERALD PEOPLE OF THE YEAR JuLia and Jake PaLay
Lynbrook twins have built a legacy of giving back By Ainsley Martinez
The Chamber of Commerce celebrated a new year. Page 3
Seventeen-year-old fraternal twins Julia and Jake Palay, seniors at Lynbrook High School, move through their days with the synchronized urgency of people who understand that time is scarce. Their schedules are dense with pre-dawn meetings, AP classes, sports practices that stretch late into the night and the pressure of college applications. And threaded through all of it is the Leo Club, the youth branch of Lions Club International — the first of its kind at Lynbrook High — which they co-founded, as the continuation of a family legacy. The Palays’ grandfather Bruce here Mazor, an ophthalmologist in Lynthere’s a brook and a longtime Lions member, was the gravitational center of that need, there’s a legacy. Leo. “His qualities of respect, honesty and generosity all stood out to me, and Julia Palay I carry them with me every day,” Jake Palay said. “He was a role model to me.” When Mazor died during their sophomore year, grief did not stall the twins; it sharpened them. The age requirement for starting a club meant that they had to wait until the following year, but when September 2024 arrived, they were ready — with a mission, a sponsor (the West Hempstead Lions Club) and a clarity of purpose uncommon among even the most accomplished students. Their grandfather didn’t just inspire the project. He shaped the lens through which they view service, leadership and purpose. And for all their club has accomplished, the Herald is proud to name Julia and Jake its 2025 People of the Year. “My dad was the type of person who loved what he did for a living,” their mother, Paula Palay, said. “He always put others before himself, and I think my kids really took that away from him and his legacy.” That inheritance first took shape when the twins were 13. For their B’nai Mitzvah project, they rejected the idea of a small, contained charity drive. Instead, they collected eyeglasses — thousands of pairs of them — because vision, they understood early, is not abstract. It is functional, immediate and often taken for granted. By the time they brought the idea of continuing their project
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Students excelled in science and math. Page 8
Christmas sparkled at Unicorn Jewels. Page 19
For BrEAKING NEWS go to liherald.com
For BrEAKING NEWS go to liherald.com
by creating a club to the high school, its scale had grown. Last year alone, their efforts yielded more than 6,000 pairs of glasses, sorted and shipped by Lions Club International to people who could not otherwise afford eye care. “It was a pleasure working with Jake and Julia to establish this club at Lynbrook High School,” Principal Matthew Sarosy said. “The cause is close to their hearts, and it was obvious to see their passion.” Their service touched on all five Lions “pillars” — vision, hunger, diabetes, childhood cancer and the environment — and, in keeping with the organization’s tradition, rarely announced itself in grand terms. It showed up as rocks painted with encouraging messages left around town during Mental Health Awareness Week; as bake sales and candy-gram fundraisers whose proceeds supported the Ronald McDonald House Charities; as brunches prepared for families keeping vigil for relatives being treated in hospitals; and as eyeglass collection boxes quietly placed in parks, schools and local businesses, waiting for people to remind themselves how much they have and how easily they can give some of it away. “Even the smallest thing could make their whole day — Continued on page 2
Courtesy Paula Palay
Lynbrook High School seniors — and twins — Jake and Julia Palay founded a leadership club at their school to serve the community, particularly those with disabilities or economic disadvantages.