Where kindness — and thank-yous — abound

An Asian woman, probably in her 60s, dressed plainly but smartly, folded a dollar bill into my son Andrew’s hand and insisted that he take it. She spoke little English.
Andrew, being a little kid, was thrilled to receive a dollar. But I insisted that the woman keep the money.

“No, no, please take, for him,” she said. “I want.”

Finally I relented, and as soon as we were out of earshot of the woman, I instructed Andrew to deposit the dollar in the donation bucket by the kitchen. I’m certain that, as a matter of policy, we weren’t supposed to take the dollar, but the woman was so insistent, and a smile beamed across her face the instant I allowed Andrew to accept it.

I knew that taking the dollar from the woman was the right thing to do. Giving that single bill to a child who had showed her kindness helped her to feel a sense of dignity.

She was among the hundreds of people, of all ages and races, who came to the First Congregational Church at Beach 94th Street in Far Rockaway on Thanksgiving for a hot meal of turkey with all the trimmings, served on oversized Styrofoam plates. The global hunger-relief organization Rock and Wrap It Up!, founded by longtime Cedarhurst resident Syd Mandelbaum, has sponsored the Thanksgiving meal each year for over a decade and a half.

My wife, Katerina, Andrew, daughter Alexandra and I –– along with about 80 other volunteers –– helped to serve the meal this year.

For a number of years, the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District, where I live and report from, has sent a contingent of phys. ed. teachers to volunteer at the event and has purchased turkeys and hams for the meal.

Saul Lerner, the Central District’s athletic director and a Woodmere resident, is a board member of Rock and Wrap It Up!, and he strongly encourages anyone and everyone he knows to donate time and resources to this nonprofit organization, which collects surplus food from concession stands at rock concerts and professional sports games and “redistributes” it to soup kitchens and homeless shelters.