East Meadow
HERALD EMFD honors EMS week
Drive-in movies come to Coliseum
Activists call for transparency at jail
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Vol. 20 No. 22
MAY 28 - JUNE 3, 2020
Feeding the community
Paying tribute to the fallen Nassau County Pipes and Drums member Terry Quinn performed during the annual Nassau County Memorial Day ceremony at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow. To abide by social distancing guidelines at this year’s event, roughly 200 cars drove under an American flag arch set up by members of the East Meadow and Westbury fire departments. Story, more photos, Page 9.
Business owners in Salisbury set up free drive-through meal service By BRIAN STIEGlITZ bstieglitz@liherald.com
Courtesy
A line of cars along Carman Avenue, in Salisbury, led to a parking lot in which an LED traffic message board read, “If you are hungry, please come.” It was a humid Saturday morning and, despite the intermittent rain, Jeffrey Lynch and his wife, Sigal, handed meals to drivers as they passed. Sigal owns, and Jeffrey manages, BZ Transportation, a party bus and limousine renting company that occupies the parking lot. On May 23, for the third time this month, the couple set up a drive-through to distribute free
meals to those who needed them amid the coronavirus pandemic. “We can’t take anyone anywhere now,” Jeffrey said. “Weddings have been rescheduled to next year, proms are canceled, no one’s going on wine tours . . . but even though we weren’t working, we wanted to help people out.” He recalled an elderly veteran who drove through their pickup location two weeks ago. “He said he was embarrassed to ask for a meal,” Jeffrey said. “I told him that he shouldn’t be — that he served our country and he’s a hero — and he started crying. It was very heartbreaking.” Last Saturday, Lynch wore a Continued on page 3
Congressional candidate wants to upset ‘status quo’ By J.D. FREDA Jfreda@liherald.com
Patricia Maher acknowledges she isn’t a typical candidate for Congress, and she isn’t a career elected official. But as she says, this is anything but a typical year, and she believes her extensive background in law, community outreach and health care and her ability to connect with people will bring her a second Democratic nomination in six years — and a seat in Congress, representing New York’s 2nd District. Maher, 60, a native of East Meadow who lives in Westbury, earned a master’s degree in Eng-
lish and art history at Hofstra University and a law degree from Touro College’s Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center in Central Islip. She is studying for a Master of Laws in health care and public policy at Hofstra. Her aim is to represent people with problems in the health care industry. This passion arose during Maher’s upbringing, as the daughter of a World War II Naval Nurse Cadet. Her mother attended a nurse training school in the early 1940s. “Initially, they said they would pay for her education if she served this country,” Maher said. “In those days, everybody wanted to serve.”
Her mother, Doris, she said, was chosen as an officer because of her high grades in training school. She was stationed at Sampson Naval Hospital, near upstate Seneca Lake, until she was assigned to serve at sea. Maher isn’t sure whether she ever touched foreign soil during the war. After their service, neither her mother nor thousands of other nurse cadets ever received the benefits that male GIs did. “They weren’t considered veterans,” Maher said. “They were there. They got diseases, got sick, were never given uniforms and never given benefits, even retroactively.”
Maher said she believed that benefits should be paid retroactively not only to the former nurse cadets who are still alive, but also to the families of those who died and those who are sick, to help them afford medical bills and burial plans. She has been working on this issue since 2011. Maher has long held the belief that she should work for
those who have less. While in law school, she worked in the Bankruptcy Clinic in Central Islip, “helping residents of Suffolk and Nassau counties and in the mortgage and foreclosure department,” she said. “Helping residents of Long Island save their homes.” She also completed an externship in the Long Continued on page 3