The Run for the Red Feather Breaks Records!!
Our 48th Thanksgiving Day Run, now known as the Run for the Red Feather broke records for participation and money raised. All tolled the Race had nearly 3400 participants and raised over $230,000 to benefit 28 Port Washington Charities.
Pre-Race cheer with Ross Baltic, Drew Hershkowitz, Laura Mogul, Becca Keen, Ellen Fox, Sheryl Albanese and Noal Goldfarb
Creating the Run for the Red Feather
In 2023 we decided to name our 48th annual Thanksgiving Day Run The Run for the Red Feather as part of our effort to connect our Race with the Community Chest’s charitable mission. Chest President Drew Hershkowitz said “this rebrand help our Race participants understand that this race is our largest fundraiser of the year and means so much to the 28 charities”. Since our red feather is the Community Chest symbol for charity, it was natural for us to extend this symbolism to our Thanksgiving Day run.
About The Red Feather Award
For the first time, our 48th Annual Thanksgiving Day Run celebrated the special bond between the Community Chest, our running community, and the Port charities who change the lives of residents in the Port Washington Community as The Run for the Red Feather.
Inspired by the Community Chest’s original Red Feather logo and our mission to serve the People of Port Washington, renown sculpture Alice Riordan volunteered to create our Red Feather Award trophies. Symbolizing Port Washington’s community spirit and care for those in need, the Red Feather Award trophy honors athletic achievement and celebrates our Run’s charitable purpose.
Using funds raised from sponsorships and race entry fees, our winning Men’s & Women’ runners will randomly select one of our “Chest” Charities who will each receive an additional $1,000 “Grant prize” to support their work.
Ellie Davis and Luke Elwood display the new Red Feather Award trophies
Celebrating Our Winners
Each year the Thanksgiving Day Run’s overall Women’s & Men’s winners will have their names memorialized on our Red Feather Trophies. A photo of each winner and our Red Feather Trophy will be displayed at the Community Chest.
Our inaugural Run for the Red Feather winners Luke Elwood (26:19) and Ellie Davis (30:59) randomly selected the Parents Resource Center(PRC) and the Art Guild respectively, as winners of the 2023 $1,000 Red Feather Award prizes .
Men’s Race winner Luke Elwood was a “PRC baby”
Ellie Davis is the first woman to win the Run for the Red Feather Award
An Interview With Community Chest Board Member : Michele Hyde
Community Chest: How long have you lived in Port Washington, and what do you enjoy about living here?
Michele: I moved to Port as a teenager and attended Weber and Schreiber. After a few years away at college and then living in Manhattan, I returned to Port in 1998 with my husband and 1 year old daughter. There are many reasons we returned to Port, being on the water, having a true, small-town feel Main Street, a real community atmosphere, and unbelievable resources such as our amazing library, top the list.
Community Chest: Why did you decide to join the Community Chest?
Michele: My mother was a longtime Chest volunteer and Board member when she lived in town. Years later, then ED, Julie Meer approached me about volunteering. Her enthusiasm, vision, and firm belief in what the Chest does, coupled with my mom’s legacy made it hard to say no.
Community Chest: What would you tell others who are thinking about volunteering for the Chest?
Michele: Getting involved in town provides so many opportunities to truly get to know your neighbors and their stories. It helps you feel connected. It allows you to give back. It introduces you to like-minded people of all ages and talents.
Community Chest: What is your favorite Community Chest event or activity?
Michele: I love that there are a variety of events throughout the year to both raise funds for and awareness of CCPW. As a result, the events attract different pockets of people in town ensuring a wide range of attendees. The engagement and support from Port residents and businesses are vital.
Community Chest: Is the Community Chest currently looking for volunteers, and what types of skills are you looking for?
Michele: The Community Chest is always looking for volunteers to share their talents, enthusiasm, and love of Port Washington!
GRANTEE FOCUS: Port Counseling Center: A Division of Long Island Reach
Long Island Reach (Reach), founded in 1970, is a community-based, multi-service agency providing a broad range of rehabilitative and treatment services to youth and their families, serving residents of Nassau County and here in Port Washington through the Port Counseling Center on Main Street.
The Need
Long Island is at the height of the opioid epidemic. Every two days on Long Island, three people die of a drug overdose. A significant amount of the Long Island population either suffers from a substance abuse disorder or has been impacted by addiction. The Port Counseling Center is committed to working with a high-risk population of community residents of all ages and their families to engage and help them learn better ways to cope with their rage, their depression, and their pain; to enhance self-esteem and to develop their self-awareness and to help seek creative alternatives to self-destructive drug and alcohol abuse, aberrant and anti-social behavior.
How They Help
The Port Counseling Center's professional staff consists of a consulting psychiatrist, psychologists, and social workers, one of whom is bilingual. All are fully licensed and experienced in providing counseling and psychotherapy services.
Chemical Dependency Treatment Program
REACH professionals in this program include an experienced team including a psychiatrist, psychologists, nurse practitioners, social workers, and mental health counselors who serve clients struggling with substance use and their family members.
Referrals are accepted from all community resources and residents. An initial evaluation can be made by telephone appointment or by walking into the Port Counseling Center, located at 225 Main Street. An intake appointment will be scheduled within a few days.
Confidentiality
Families and teens in the midst of a crisis need a place they can go without worrying that confidential matters are handled with the utmost discretion. All Port Counseling Center clients can be assured that all client records, regardless of program, are protected by the Federal Regulations (42 C.F.R. Part 2) pertaining to Substance Abuse Services and are also protected by HIPAA. Our teens are further protected under New York State Public Health Law (Section 27A) Regarding HIV and Aids Services.
How Your Donations Help
Though the Port Counseling Center does its best to manage patient expenses, not all Port residents can afford the cost of receiving the help they need. Your donations help to subsidize those expenses, so no Port teen is turned away from getting the help they need.
How to Get In Touch
Port Counseling Center, a division of Long Island Reach
225 Main Street, Port Washington, NY 11050,
Tel. 516-767-1133
An Interview with Community Chest Volunteer Michelle Bazzini
Community Chest: Please tell us a little about you and your Charitable work in the community.
Michelle: I have loved living in Port for 26 years, raising 3 children here, and developing amazing friendships. Each May I volunteer at the Community Chest for the Golf Outing fundraiser by asking Port Merchants for raffle items (since 2019).
Also, I volunteer weekly at Our Lady of Fatima Outreach food bank (since 2020).
Community Chest: What do you enjoy about volunteering with the Community Chest ?
Michelle: In both places, my enjoyment is from the people I meet and form relationships with. Specifically, the golf outing is coordinated by volunteers; chaired by Jeff Holtzman, who's positive & encouraging. It's interesting to get to know business owners in town too. Conversations can range from stories, like getting to their store in a snowstorm decades ago, to what's new on the menu, or what donation golfers may want to bid on. This year Francine Furtado joined me in asking for donations, and I am so grateful for her.
Community Chest: How long have you been a volunteer?
Michelle: My first Port Washington volunteering was at The Parent Resource Center when I first moved! I have always enjoyed volunteer work -- I was a girl scout and volunteered at church various times. My parents were "non-stop volunteers"; they're simmering down at 85, but people at any age can absolutely be inspired by others' examples.
Community Chest: What would you tell others who might be interested in volunteering with the Chest?
Michelle: I have no doubt that compassion is motivation to volunteer. For me, it all stems down to an organization's mission; Community Chest is dedicated to providing resources for our community and neighbors who need some help right now.
That compassion is my "why" on days when the work pushes me outside my comfort zone, such as asking local businesses to donate money or merchandise for Community Chest raffles. It is rewarding to see local businesses connect with and support the Chest and look someone in the eyes and genuinely thank them, clerk and/or business owner.
My advice is to look for causes that matter to you. Your contributions will make someone's day!
STEPHEN WEINER Obituary
Published by New York Times on Aug. 6, 2023.
WEINER--Stephen A. Stephen A. Weiner of Sands Point, NY passed away on August 1, 2023. He was born in Brooklyn to Joseph and Ruth Lessall Weiner on November 20, 1933. Steve attended the Horace Mann School, and graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and cum laude from Yale Law School where he was Comment Editor of the Law Journal. Following six months in the United States Army, he began a 64-year law career. Steve entered the firm of Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam and Roberts (WSPR) in 1958 and departed from 1965 to 1968 to be Acting Professor at the University of California School of Law in Berkeley, where he also served as Chairman of the campus-wide Student Conduct Committee. He returned to WSPR as a partner and in its successor firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, serving as Vice-Chairman of the WSPR Management Committee 1984 - 1997, and senior counsel and member of the Professional Responsibility Committee from 2002 to 2022. Upon reaching senior status, he returned to teaching. He was Adjunct Professor of Law at Brooklyn School of Law from 2003 to 2022, Special Professor of Law at Hofstra School of Law 2008 - 2013, Adjunct Professor of Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law 2010 to 2022.
He was proudof the high grades awarded him by his students, a number of whom he maintained contact with after they graduated. Since 1998, Steve held a number of Judicial Appointments by the Supreme Court State of New York First Department, including membership on the Committee on Character and Fitness and as Special Master where he mediated over 300 cases. In 1998 the Chief Judge of the State of New York appointed him to the New York State Judicial Institute on Professionalism. Steve also was as arbitrator for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and was a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. While Steve derived great satisfaction from his chosen profession, his greatest pleasure was being with his devoted family - his wife, of 65 years, Mina (Rieur), their daughter Karen Goss and her husband Charles, their son James Weiner and his wife Amy; grandchildren Jessica Goss Tuorto and her husband Rich, Derek Goss, Griffin Weiner, Payton Weiner, and an extended family of in-laws, nieces, nephews and cousins. He was predeceased by his sister Elizabeth Vorenberg and his son Paul. Steve truly enjoyed his home, a wide circle of friends, traveling here and abroad, New York Times crossword puzzles and a weekly tennis game in which he participated until last year. A celebration of life will be held in October. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Port Washington Community Chest.
Former Board member Nancy Cowles Recognized for 50 years of Service
Former Community Chest Board member Nancy Cowles was honored at a ceremony for her 50 years of service to the Community Chest and Port Washington. Nancy was awarded the Mary Ellen McCullum service award by Community Chest President Drew Hershkowitz at a recent luncheon.
Nancy has been a tireless volunteer in our Port Washington community for more than 50 years. A retired school psychologist, Nancy volunteered as a tutor in reading, ESL and learning disabilities programs, and served on boards of many community and school organizations including a child guidance association, and student loan and scholarship committees. She headed a committee that developed a comprehensive special education plan which was implemented in the Port schools. Nancy, a past president of the Community Chest, has held several Board positions in the League of Women Voters, and was a member of Schreiber High School’s Diversity Committee, the Sons of Italy, and Pride in Port. In 2003, Nancy was selected for the North Hempstead’s Women’s Roll of Honor.
Along with her husband Jim, she served nine years as a Trustee, Vice- President and President of the Port Washington Board of Education. Nancy chaired several Board committees and was the Board’s liaison to the Advisory Committee on the Landfill, the Town of North Hempstead’s Port Washington Visioning Committee, Parents’ Council and the Safe Drug and AlcoholFree Task Force.
Included in her portfolio of Community Chest accolades, Nancy & her husband Jim were honored as the 2013 Citizens of the Year, for their remarkable contributions to the Port Washington community. The Community Chest’s Citizen of the Year Award recognizes “a lifetime of outstanding volunteer service on behalf of the citizens of Port Washington” and has been awarded annually since 1969.
Port Resident Skip Stern Joins the Community Chest Board of Directors
The Community Chest of Port Washington announced today that Skip Stern has been elected to the Board of Directors. A Port Washington resident for more than 30 years, Skip brings vast business experience and an impeccable record of community service to the Board.
Currently serving as Senior Vice President & Senior Private Banker for M&T Bank, Mr. Stern holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Harvard College and an MBA from Columbia’s Graduate School of Business. Skip has volunteered for the Community Chest for many years, supporting both the Thanksgiving Day and the Winter Runs.
Among his accomplishments, Skip was a principal organizer of the “Go Turf Campaign”, which raised money to install the synthetic turf all-purpose playing field at Port Washington’s Schreiber High School. For over a decade, Skip was chair of the Soccer Advisory Committee of North Hempstead and Director of the North Hempstead Cup Columbus Day Soccer Tournament. He was recognized by the Town of North Hempstead for his volunteer service in 2021.
Community Chest President Drew Hershkowitz said, “We are thrilled that Skip has joined our Board; his unique blend of business acumen and commitment to the Port Washington community make him an ideal addition to the Community Chest Board of Directors.”
Skip is also active in alumni affairs at Harvard, currently serving as President of the Harvard Club of Long Island, including subcommittee chair and admissions alumni interviewer, and is co-chair of his graduating class’s Participation Committee for fundraising.
Mr. Stern commented, “As a long-time volunteer for the Community Chest, I am honored to serve as a Board member for an organization that plays such a pivotal role in funding nonprofits that provide a safety net for needy members of the Port Washington community.”