Lakeside honors beloved aide with a bench

Levy-Lakeside Elementary School in Merrick recently dedicated a new playground bench in honor of school aide Shelley Rubin, who died after a long battle with ovarian cancer last year. The Student Council fundraised to purchase the bench.

At the dedication ceremony, 18 balloons were released as a violin played. Students and teachers read poems as well. Late in her illness, Rubin would sit on the old playground bench, unable to walk much but surrounded by the children she loved, school officials said. She rarely took a day off from work, even amid her illness. Above at the dedication ceremony were Rubin’s husband, Randy, at back; and, at front, from left, Michelle Fenelius, a Levy-Lakeside teacher with whom Rubin worked closely, Rubin’s children, Lauren Kane and Matthew Rubin, and Sue Becchina, another Levy-Lakeside teacher with whom Rubin worked.