Letters to the Rockville Centre Herald June 2, 2011

Thanks to the volunteers

To the Editor:

As a social worker for the Rockville Centre Department of Senior Services and staff liaison to the Sandel Center’s Homework Helpers, I would like to commend the members of the center who volunteer as Senior Homework Helpers for their dedication and support for a very successful program this past school year.

I would also like to acknowledge our partnerships with the Rockville Centre Public Library and the school district. Library Director Maureen Chiofalo and the staff were very supportive in providing the Homework Helpers with a professional venue, and promoted the program in their newsletter and on their website. The senior volunteers enjoy the setting of the library, and are grateful for the attentiveness of the Children’s Library staff.

The school district’s assistant superintendent for curriculum, Chris Pellettieri, was instrumental in providing the Homework Helpers with school textbooks and homework sheets to add to the success of the program.

The dedicated Homework Helpers have clearly attained the goal of the program, which is to provide academic support for Rockville Centre children within the context of an intergenerational experience. The work of the Sandel Center Homework Helpers builds community awareness and pride in senior volunteerism.

Rose Genovese

Social worker, Sandel Senior Center

A job well done

To the Editor:

Once again, the letter carriers of Rockville Centre delivered — food, that is, and lots of it. The 19th annual Letter Carrier Food Drive was very successful. On May 14, we collected more than 5,000 pounds of food. Not a bad day’s work — and it didn’t cost the Post Office any overtime.

It was a great day, with management and the work force collaborating to help out people in need. There was a great sense of price and togetherness in community service. After a hard day, it was nice to see the Boy Scouts of Troop 517 helping the letter carriers prepare the food for shipment to Long Island Harvest. I would also like to thank Anthony Brunetta for allowing the Recreation Center to be used as a drop-off location for food donation.

On May 14, the letter carrier motto was a little different than the norm. On that day it was, “Let’s be the hands, let’s be the feet, let’s be the love that longs for those in need.”

Thank you, everybody, for a job well done.

Richard Catapano Sr.

NALC Food Drive coordinator

Says letter slurs Tea Party Patriots

To the Editor:

     Some weeks ago a letter “Attacks on president are racist” (May 12-18) contained a rather broad and actually ridiculous statement, that those who attack President Barack Obama are “hiding behind racism.” It also mentioned “tea partiers” and “birthers” among two groups in particular who it inferred were not only “racists” but also “against women’s rights,” and the “legitimacy of people of the same gender to love one another.”

     What an absolutely marvelous command of insight the writer has, to see into the minds of millions of patriotic American Tea Party members and come to such a bigoted and grossly unfounded assessment.

      In reply to the writer’s ludicrous assessment of Tea Party Patriots (I’ll let the birthers speak for themselves), I need only to reveal that as an organizer of the Nassau County Tea Party Patriots, our ranks include people of all colors, more women than men, and loving people whose sexual choice of gay or straight partners is nobody’s business but their own.

I will also add that a preponderance of Tea Party Patriots from around the nation, including myself, have an affirmative passion for the Republican candidate for president, Herman Caine. Why? Because he is a gentleman, a businessman of note, a man who speaks positively about America and a man of faith who speaks about the love of God and the love for his country with the affirmation of a true patriot. 

Insofar as most politically astute Americans are aware, Caine also happens to be a man of color. So much for the racial slur regarding the Tea Party.

    Truth be told, Caine certainly will not throw Israel under the bus as Obama has sought to do, a thought that the letter writer should perhaps consider.

Mickey Clark

Rockville Centre