“It was a very prestigious award to me because Dr. B. meant so much to me and the community,” LoCicero said. “Dr. B was the heart and soul of Lynbrook. He’ll never know how much he truly meant to the community … without him it’s so much different.”

When Al Barbarino announced the winner of the student of promise scholarship, Brittman, too, said she began to cry. Her award is for a student who “exemplifies the qualities and attributes that Dr. Barbarino lived every day of his life” — a description that meant a lot to Brittman.

“For people to consider me someone like him is just an honor,” said Brittman, who will attend Oswego State University to study childhood education.

Mary Kirby, an English teacher at Lynbrook High School for 17 years and a union representative for the LTA, helped establish the scholarship fund corporation. She said that Barbarino, her high school principal, was her mentor. Kirby added that many Lynbrook alumni move back to the community to raise families because of the environment Barbarino fostered for them as students.

“Working on this helps to keep him alive and with us,” Kirby said of the scholarship fund. “[It] makes sure that no one ever loses the memory of what he did for all of us.”

Barbarino held a number of positions in the school district in his 32-year tenure. He started as a chemistry teacher in 1980, and served as superintendent from 2008 to 2012. His nephew said that the corporation would like to expand the scholarships to other affiliations of Barbarino’s, including St. Francis College, from which he graduated in 1967, and the Alpha Phi Delta Association, which he served as district governor for the New York City area.

Golf outing set for Monday

A golf outing and a cocktail reception were seen as a way to bring the community together and raise money for the scholarship fund, Chris Barbarino said. The event will take place at the Inwood Country Club on Monday.