Serving Port Washington
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Friday, September 8, 2017
Vol. 2, No. 36
Port WashingtonTimes MINEOLA STREET FAIR
FLOWER HILL PREPS CURRAN, MARAGOS VIE FOR HOLIDAYS FOR DEM NOMINATION
PAGES 41-56
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9/11 bond stays strong, 16 years later Tom Rice of Port Washington keeps in touch with boy who wrote him letter BY A M E L I A C A M U R AT I
PHOTO COURTESY OF TOM RICE
As Tom Rice of Port Washington sifted through the rubble of the World Trade Center, he took breaks to write back to children who sent letters to New York City police officers and firefighters. “I didn’t want the kids to think they were forgotten,” Rice, then a New York police officer, said. “I think
that was really the big reason why. They sent them for a reason, and I’ve always had a passion for kids and it kind of took me out of the zone and out of the fog to write back.” One of the letters he found was from Eric Goebel, a middle school student outside Lincoln, Nebraska, who put a little extra thought into that day’s English class assignment to write to the New York officers in the Continued on Page 82
Port cafe ends mission after 8 years in business BY A M E L I A C A M U R AT I A Port Washington bakery and cafe closed its doors last Thursday after fighting to figure out a way to stay open. After eight years in business,
Coffeed-Sweet Comfort Bakery and Café was forced to shut its doors due to financial struggles, said Eileen Egan, the executive director of Community Mainstreaming Associates. The bakery was owned by the organization, a nonprofit
founded in 1980 that helps developmentally disabled adults find homes and develop job skills. “We’ve had a good run,” Egan said. “For eight years, we’ve been able to employ people with disabilities, and we were able to train people. A lot of good things happened. Unfortunately, it just cost us a lot of money to run a small store.” To help with revenues, Egan’s organization part-
nered about four years ago with Coffeed, a charity-minded chain of cafe s based in New York City that also runs shops at Jones Beach and the Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay. Coffeed co-founder Abe King said the bakery on Irma Avenue has employed more than 30 people over the years and helped with vocational training at high schools in Roslyn, Great Neck and East Williston. King said he would love to
bring the bakery back to Port Washington if he could find the right investor. “I hope that with this publicity that someone from Port Washington or Sands Point realizes the only good thing they can take with them is good deeds. This is the baked good of deeds here,” King said. King said he will miss the regular customers but, most of all, his staff. Continued on Page 82
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