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VOL. 70 No. 48 Second Class Postage paid at Post office at Hempstead, N.Y. 11550 November 27, 2020 2 Endo Blvd, Garden City NY 11530 $1 per copy Subscription $50 INCORPORATING THE WEST HEMPSTEAD BEACON Thanksgiving in Hempstead Through the Decades Adelphi Donates Chairs, Tables to Hempstead Union Free School District In late summer 2019, Adelphi University constructed a temporary dining hall on campus to serve meals while the Ruth S. Harley University Center (UC) -- which included a primary dining facility -- was undergoing major renovation and expansion. Called the Panthers Den, the facility has served students and others on campus well. But with the impending completion of the UC renovations -- planned reopening will be for the spring 2021 semester -- the temporary structure will be removed, starting after Wednesday, November 18. The facility and most of its furnishings will be reused. “Consistent with Adelphi’s commitment to sustainability and community service, the University is donating the tables and chairs from the Panthers’ Den to the Hempstead Union Free School District (HUFSD),” said James Perrino, executive vice president of finance and administration, in a recent campus announcement. “Chartwells, our dining services provider, is working with Hempstead schools to donate kitchenware such as pots, pans and utensils.” The 46 tables and 158 chairs and the dining service equipment will be delivered to the school district in batches, wrapping up this week. “The HUFSD greatly appreciates Adelphi’s donation to our school community,” said district spokesperson Ana Lovasz. “Please know that chairs and tables are being used by students at Hempstead High School, Barack Obama and Front Street Elementary Schools. Students and administrators are very thankful.” Adelphi’s Perrino added, “The site of the Panthers’ Den will be restored to its original beauty. This includes the removal of fencing and asphalt, and restoration of the lawn, gardens and walkways.” BY REINE BETHANY, Village Historian What has Thanksgiving Day traditionally meant in Hempstead? A variety of things, according to historic papers. On November 30, 1871, the Queens County Sentinel’s Thanksgiving page gave most of its space to a sentimental love story centered on young Long Island farm folk. In 1894, when Rev. Creighton Spencer officiated the St. George’s Church Thanksgiving service, “The chancel was appropriately decorated with grain, vegetables and fruits, which were afterward given to the deserving poor.” By 1897, the Town of Hempstead was known as “New York’s Playground” for New York socialites. Thanksgiving Day saw Meadow Brook Hunt Club members streaking on their horses across a five-mile steeplechase course in Wheatley Hills. During World War I, in 1918 and 1919 up to eighty thousand soldiers crowded Mitchel Field. The Hempstead Village Citizens’ Committee arranged recreation venues for off-duty soldiers. From the Utowanna Hotel on Main Street to Christ’s First Presbyterian Church, from the Red Cross to the Knights of Columbus, every village organization participated. Soldiers on Thanksgiving Day in those years had many thanks to give Hempstead. The focus on giving continued. During the 1920s to through 1940s, the American Legion Post 390 hosted a Ragamuffin Day parade for 500-600 children, and organizations like the Kiwanis Club and the Hempstead Debs dished out free Thanksgiving dinners to the needy of the village. This year, faced with a pandemic, our village’s charitable programs are even more important. To name a few, the Mary Brennan INN at 100 Madison Avenue held a contactless Thanksgiving Food Drive on November 14 and the Village of Hempstead has hosted three turkey giveaways: at Village Hall on Friday, November 20; at GB’s Sneaker Terminal on Jackson Street on Monday, November 23; and at Kennedy Park on Tuesday, November 24. The November 24 event enjoyed the presence, not only of village trustees, but of former Major League Baseball players Art Shamsky, Ed Kranepool, and Dwight Gooden. After delivering encouraging words in a brief opening ceremony, the dignitaries personally started doling out free frozen turkeys to 550 Hempstead residents. The village will continue its giving programs throughout the holiday season. Courtesy Reine Bethany HEMPSTEAD VILLAGE TRUSTEE Waylyn Hobbs, Jr., far left, former New York Mets players Dwight Gooden, Art Shamsky, and Ed Kranepool, Village Trustee Lamont Johnson, and Deputy Village Mayor Charles Renfroe kick off the free turkey distribution at Kennedy Park. Courtesy Adelphi University INSIDE ADELPHI’S PANTHERS Den. Courtesy Adelphi University TOWN OF HEMPSTEAD truck outside Adelphi’s Panthers Den. Rockaway JOURNAL Since 1883 www.liherald.com NOVEMBER 26 - DECEMBER 2, 2020 $1.00 By JEFFREY BESSEN jbessen@liherald.com A Vietnam Prisoner of War bracelet that was bought in the early 1970s to honor the servicemen that were captured and found in a box of memories will be given to the family of Donald Randner who survived his imprisonment but died of lung cancer in 2005. Bonnie Sperry, the section administrator of the Lawrence-based National Council Jewish Women-Peninsula Section, unearthed the silver metal bracelet and after watching a documentary this summer on the women who went to Paris in 1969 during the peace talks to lobby for the release of their husbands she Googled Rander’s name. Fortuitously, the NCJW was hosting a virtual talk on Nov. 3 with Heath Lee who wrote the book “The League of Wives: The Untold Story of the Women Who Took on the U.S. Government to Bring Their Husbands Home.” Sperry shard her story and Lee agreed to put Sperry in contact with Rander’s former wife Andrea, the couple divorced in 1993, who was one of the spouses whose story is part of the book. “I think that right now in our world in our country there is such sadness and such uncertainty this to me brightened my spirits,” Sperry said about giving the bracelet to Rander and her daughters, Lysa and Page. Sperry mailed the bracelet this week. Sperry said her parents, Rita and Ben, bought the bracelet to support an organization. She said she remembers the talk around the family’s dinner table in Massapequa, especially with older brothers David and Michael eligible for the military draft. “I am so excited that I tracked down the family and it’s all because of NCJW,” Sperry said. Rander, originally from the Bronx, attended Adelphi University before working for First National City Bank of New York, Capitol Airlines and British Overseas Airlines. Drafted in 1961, he was a military policeman and served in France and the United States. Four years later Rander went into army intelligence, became an instructor and volunteered for duty in Vietnam in 1967. He was taken prisoner Feb. 1, 1968 and released March 27, 1973. Involved in the National League of Families, Andrea said she was the only African-American woman on the board and was sought out by Lee for her work. “We worked diligently and endlessly to finally achieve our goal … to bring our husbands home,” Andrea said about joining forces with other Air Force, Army and Navy wives. She said loneliness was a huge part of her life the five years Donald was a prisoner, and it was difficult to work full-time and be both a mother and father to her daughters. “Much of the survival mode came from the strength that the wives drew from each other,” Andrea said. “We knew we could keep in touch because we were in the same predicament and would search for answers we could not answer ourselves, especially when news and information was not forthcoming for what seemed like an eternity.” Sperry said when she told Lee her story it gave the author goose bumps. She just finished her first book on a post-Civil War woman when Lee found the papers of family friend Phyllis Easton Galanti, a Vietnam War POW/MIA (missing in action) activist. “There was such serendipity in that happening,” Lee said about Sperry returning the Rander bracelet. “The topic of the POW/MIA cause often reminds people to look in their jewelry boxes for those metal POW/ MIA they may have always had but have forgotten.” A wider audience will be able to know the wives’ story as Lee’s book was optioned by actress Reese Witherspoon’s production Hello Sunshine and Sony 300. Lee is an executive producer and consultant on the movie. Filming is yet to begin. Serendipity unearths Vietnam memento Courtesy Bonnie Sperry THE VIETNAM PRISONER of War bracelet that honored Donald Rander and Bonnie Sperry gave to the Rander family. VOL. 66 NO. 48 November 26-December 2, 2020 $1.00 The Hicks are remembered PAGE 3 A Hewlett-Woodmere trustee says goodbye Paul Critti steps down Learning THe game a small group of children and teenage and adult mentors who gathered on the Five Towns Community Center field in Lawrence on nov. 21 to learn and teach a few basics of the game with a larger goal in mind. inwood resident ilyssha Shivers who oversaw the Saturday clinic is aiming to resurrect a local youth football program similar to what the inwood Buccaneers athletic Club offered young people until the organization went dormant in 2018. Five children and three Lawrence High School varsity football players ran through an assortment of agility drills with intermittent water breaks during the clinics. above, John Calderón, center, taught the children blocking. giving thanks, helping business Two editorials PAGE 4 Inside STORY PAGE 5 RecoRD South Shore Jeffrey Bessen/Herald Bellmore East Meadow Franklin Sq./Elmont Freeport Glen Cove Long Beach Lynbrook/E. Rockaway Malvern/W. Hempstead Merrick Nassau (Five Towns) Oceanside/Island Park Hempstead Beacon Oyster Bay Rockville Centre Rockaway Journal Sea Cliff/Glen Head South Shore Record Seaford Uniondale Valley Stream Wantagh The Riverdale Press The Jewish Star Baldwin Each newsbrand as as its community
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