Freeport Skaters Compete in NY State Empire Games
The Freeport Recreation Center is home
to one of the most successful ice-skating
schools on Long Island. Recently, a special
group of students from the Freeport Skating
The team in the Intermediate Division of the Synchronized Skating
competition with school director Liz Eldridge in the back row.
Academy, which uses the Recreation Center's
ice rink, returned from the annual Empire
State competition in Lake Placid after plac-ing
fourth in the Intermediate Division of the
Synchronized Skating competition.
"This is a new sport," explained
Liz Eldridge, the director of the pro-gram,
"and our team is ahead of the
competition. The girls practiced very
hard for this event, and it showed
on the ice; they were excellent. I was
very proud of their performance."
In addition, two students, Lau-ren
Johnson from Freeport, and
Kelly Gallagher of Point Lookout,
made the final rounds in the Novice
Ladies' figure skating competition.
The Freeport Skating Academy
offers lessons in figure and synchro-nized
skatin'g7"arid"is'opeh't6 "cHil-"
dren and adults, Freeport residents
and non-residents. For further infor-mation,
contact the school at 516-
The two Novice Ladies' Finalists, Lauren Johnson (left) and
Kelly Gallagher (right).
377-2314 ext. 14, or you may send an email to
freeportskatingacademy.org
Mayor Glacken Joins PAL
in Awarding Basketball Trophies
The Freeport Police Athletic League
held its awards ceremony at the
Recreation Center recently for the hun-dreds
of children who played on the vari-ous
teams. Mayor Bill Glacken congratu-lated
the youngsters and told them there
are very important lessons to be learned
from participating in team sports, such as
sportsmanship, cooperation, and work-ing
toward a common goal.
Pictured in the photo are: PAL President Mike Pomerico, Referee Keith Nicholson, Coaches and assistants Mike Aviles, Mayor Bill Glacken,
Gordon Radlich, and Tom Nicholson in back, with some of the youngsters on the basketball teams in front.
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Freeport Report
New York
FEBRUARY, 2008 www.freeportny.gov THE HOME OF CHAMPIONS
Black History Month Stamp Honors
Charles Waddell Chesnutt
The Freeport Memorial Library was the site
for the unveiling of the 2008 Black History
Month stamp, this year depicting Charles W.
Chesnutt. The event was officially opened by
the children from the color guard from the
New Visions elementary school, and featured
a recitation by the students, directed by
instructor Ruth Breidenbach. The stamp
unveiling was sponsored by the Freeport
branch of the U.S. Post Office and the African
Atlantic Genealogical Society, which was
founded by Julius and Joysetta Pearse.
Charles Waddell Chesnutt was born in 1858
in Cleveland, Ohio and went on to become a
lawyer and prominent writer, publishing sev-eral
short stories in the Atlantic Monthly. He
later wrote longer pieces and non-fiction
works, including the novel "House Behind the
Cedars", and a biography of Frederick
Douglass.
Julius Pearce described the hardships that
Mr. Chesnutt and his family endured and his
struggle to obtain an education. After his
father died, Mr. Chesnutt became a student-teacher
to help support his mother and
younger siblings. Later in life, he served on
the General Committee of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored
People. Working side-by-side with W.E.B.
DuBois and Booker T. Washington, he became
one of the era's most prominent activists and
commentators. In 1928, he received the
NAACP's Spingarn Medal for his life's work.
Pictured in the photo, left to right are: New
Visions Principal Renee Crump, Freeport
Deputy Mayor Renaire Frierson, African-
Atlantic Genealogical Society President
Joysetta Pearse, Freeport Postmaster Dermott
Tuohy, Post Office Customer Service
Representative Roxanne Green,
Freeport/Roosevelt NAACP President Douglas
Mayers, Freeport School Superintendent Dr.
Eric Eversley, and African-Atlantic
Genealogical Society Co-Founder, Julius
Pearse.
A MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR
I hope you have all had an oppor-tunity
to enjoy some of the new pro-grams
that are being offered at the
Freeport Recreation Center. The cen-ter
now offers birthday parties tai-lored
to your child's specific interests.
This includes swimming, ice-skating,
basketball, tot gym, and volleyball,
just to name a few. The party pack-age
includes your child's special
event, pizza, soda, balloons and
paper goods.
The new "Triple Play" program,
which has been scheduled for recent
school holidays, features a special
combination of sports that includes
admission to the swimming pool, the
basketball courts, and the ice rink, all
for the one price of $5 per child. The
"Triple Play" event has been a big hit
and provides the children with a safe,
supervised place to spend their school
holidays. During the December winter
break, over 275 children took advan-tage
of our "Triple Play" day at the
Rec Center. Watch for another
"Triple Play" program to be scheduled
during the week of Spring vacation
from school, beginning April 20th.
Several new programs have been
added to the regular lineup of ser-vices
offered to the public. This Sum-mer
the Recreation Center will pro-vide
programs for children three to
twelve-years-old. These include our
popular Kiddie programs for children
three to five-years-old, which provide
supervised indoor and outdoor
games, sports, swimming, arts and
crafts, music and story time. This
program is held weekdays from 9:00
a.m. until noon. The Recreation
Center will have four, distinct two-week
sessions for the Summer Youth
program. This program is available
to children aged six-to-nine, and will
be held weekdays from 1:30 p.m. to
4:30 p.m. ...._„_. ._,.^... -_ ._.
This year we have expanded our
Sport Summer Program for children in
the 4th through 8th grades. The pro-gram
will include swimming, fitness
programs, volleyball, tennis, golf, soc-cer,
lacrosse, basketball, softball,
floor hockey and a special trip every
week. There will be four, two-week
sessions beginning June 30th.
We understand that many parents
hold down jobs with either very early
starting hours or later than five p.m.
quitting time. We would like to
accommodate these families by offer-ing
childcare assistance. The
Recreation Center will be providing
morning and late afternoon care for
children aged six to twelve-years-old.
You can register for these and our
other Summer programs beginning
April 5th. Registration will be open
for~the"e'htire month "of"April"."but*
space is limited, and the groups are
expected to close out quickly.
The Recreation Center will be
presenting a special nutritional pro-gram
this April called Healthy Eating
and Cooking for Parents, Children
and Teens. It is a four-week session
with a "back to basics" approach to
teach families how to prepare tasty,
wholesome meals quickly and easily
at home, while educating them on
how to stretch their food-buying
power. The program will address the
serious issues of obesity, Type 2 dia-betes
and early coronary heart dis-ease
in children and adolescents.
Meanwhile, we are expanding the
variety of physical exercise programs
with new classes being added each
season. Among the offerings this
Spring and Summer will be a karate
course for youngsters aged four-to-eleven
years old, fencing for young-sters
nine-years-old and up, and a
children's fitness program for four to
six-years-old. For a full list of
Summer Youth and Adult programs,
please visit our website at
www.freeportny.gov and follow the
links to Recreation.
Senior citizens enjoy having their
owrL^pecja.Uroo.m..in the Program^ -*
Wing of the Recreation Center to play
cards, shoot pool, or just sit and visit
with each other and enjoy a cup of
coffee or tea with friends. Programs
include volleyball, aquacise, line
dancing, crafts, mah jongg, canasta,
scrabble, bridge, movie days,
dancing, bowling, and special trips to
shopping centers or tourist attrac-tions.
The monthly schedule can be
found on the website.
Dozens of civic groups and other
organizations use the center for their
regular meetings. Last month, Pack 18
of the Cub Scouts celebrated their
annual awards dinner in the spacious
upstairs lounge. Recently, the Police
Athletic League distributed trophies
to the winning basketball, lacrosse,
and soccer teams there as well. If
you are jnterestedjn bpokjricjvaj,Qpm,
"joining a class, or starting a program,
contact the center at 516-377-2314, or.
send an email to rec.center@freeport-ny.
gov. For Birthday Party availability,
please call 516-377-2314 ext. 30.
Join your friends and neighbors
at the Freeport Recreation Center, the
jewel of the Village.
Human Rights Commission Holds
"Awareness Day" at Adelphi University
Pictured in the photo ore: Adelphi University Professor Bruce Castellano, Conference Advisor; Renaire Frierson, Freeport Deputy
Mayor and Executive Director of the Nassau County Human Rights Commission, Seated in front are several high school stu-dents
and Nassau County Human Rights Commissioners Carrie Solages and Angela Davis,
Renaire Frierson, the
Deputy Mayor of Freeport
and Executive Director of the
Nassau County Human Rights
Commission, chaired a con-ference
held at Adelphi
University for high school stu-dents
entitled "Your Human
Rights are My Responsibility."
The various workshops
included Increase the Peace -
Break the Cycle; Hate Crimes
101: The Continuum, of
Prejudicial Behavior; and
Speak Up, Speak Out! Your
Rights in School and the
Community. Human Rights
Commissioner Carrie Solages,
told the teenagers that he
attended a similar event
when he was in high school
and was so impressed with
"Awareness Day" that he
went on to attend
Georgetown University Law
School in Washington, D.C.
and has opened his own
practice in Hempstead with
the goal to serve the needs
of every member of the
population.
M Long Island Arts Council at Freeport to Award Grants B
Ny This year's financial awards from the
J LI Arts Council at Freeport will be held in
N the Freeport Recreation Center's upstairs
N lounge on Thursday, March 13th, from 4
M to 6 p.m. Among the recipients are two
N projects sponsored by the African-Atlantic
Genealogical Society, and a series of con-certs
performed by Soh Young Lee-
Segredo.
The grants range in amounts from
under $500 to $5,000, which will be given to
the Eglevsky Ballet Company to assist
with the cost of the production of "A
Night at the Ballet." In addition, the LI
Arts Council at Freeport has set a date for
the Annual Arty Party. The fund-raiser
will be held at the Carltun restaurant in
Eisenhower Park in East Meadow on May
8th. For ticket information, contact the
Arts Council at 516-223-2522, or check the
website at www.liacfreeport.org.
NNNNNNN
Freeport/Baldwin
Elks Honors
Past Ruler
Glen Cohen
Representatives of the state and regional
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks were on hand
to congratulate Junior Past Exalted Ruler Glen Cohen
for the service he has given to the Freeport/Baldwin
Lodge #1253 over the 10 years of his tenure with the
local group.
As is the custom, Mr. Cohen served as Senior Past
Exalted Ruler before taking on the title of Junior Past
Exalted Ruler. His friends and fellow Elks described his
devotion to the organization and his efforts on behalf
of several charities and scholarship funds.
Nassau County Legislator David Denenberg (left) joins
Freeport Trustee Jorge Martinez (right) in congratulating Jr. Past Exalted Ruler Glen Cohen (center).
