By Alyssa R. Griffin
The Lynbrook Chamber of Commerce will kick off the new year with its annual gala, An Evening of Excellence, celebrating residents and businesses that have made significant contributions to the village.
“At this event, we honor members of our community that show outstanding service,” chamber President Michela Argento said. “We like to bring the community together. We bring the Lynbrook board, the village trustees together and everybody just gets to celebrate the community that night.”
The gala will be held Jan. 29 at the Coral House in Baldwin, and will recognize honorees from the Lynbrook school district, the fire and police departments and local businesses.
“Let’s celebrate this new year all together and honor all these people that helped us throughout this time,” Argento said. “Give back to the community and kick off the year the right way.”
The 2025 honoree from Lynbrook schools is Amy Ezagui, a physics and marine science teacher at
Lynbrook High School. She has been teaching for 28 years, the last 23 in Lynbrook.
“I’m extremely, extremely honored,” Ezagui said. “It’s validation of all of my hard work. I enjoy my job; I enjoy working with the students. I do teach a challenging class — my physics class is a challenging class. Sometimes students don’t always see my caring nature, because they’re overwhelmed by the content that I’m teaching. But it’s nice to be validated for all of my hard work that I put in every day.”
Scott Bien, ex-chief of the
Lynbrook Fire Department, will also be honored. A lifelong village resident, Bien joined the department in 2005, shortly after he graduated from Lynbrook High. He has served as second and first lieutenant, captain and, most recently, chief of department from April 2024 to 2025.
“It’s a privilege,” Bien said. “It’s a lot of hard work that goes into being one of the four chiefs in the fire department. It’s really an honor and a privilege to be recognized for some of that hard work over the last four years.”
Bien praised the local business community for its continued support. “The businesses associated with the Chamber of Commerce, they do always support the Fire Department, and it does help us tremendously,” he said.
“So it’s very nice, being the nice, small town that Lynbrook is, to see all these people, and everyone tries to help each other out when possible.”
Representing the
Lynbrook Police Department this year is Detective Sgt. Christopher Skartsiaris. He has worked in the department for nearly 28 years, spending his entire career, thus far, serving the community where he was raised.
Although Skartsiaris now lives with his family in the Patchogue-Medford area, he and his wife remain close to the village, where their families still live.
“It’s a nice thing to be recognized for 28 years of service,” he said. “It’s a privilege to work with the guys I’ve worked with for so many years, and work in the community that I grew up with since I was a kid.”
The chamber also honors a business each year. For 2025,
Breslin Realty and the developer Fields Grade are being recognized for their partnership on the multifamily development the Langdon, which brought new housing options and commercial space to the village. Beginning in 2022, the project redeveloped the site of the former Mangrove Feather factory into residential units with ground-floor retail.
The gala is a celebration of community spirit, recognizing those whose work and dedication help make Lynbrook a better place to live and work. It will include dinner, dancing and the annual induction of chamber board members. Tickets are available for $125 per person. For more information, go to LynbrookUSA.com.
