Friday, January 17, 2025
’Tis the season to give back to the community, and few know how to do it better than the Five Towns and Rock and Wrap it Up!.
Rock and Wrap it Up! — the award winning, anti-poverty think tank founded by Cedarhurst resident Syd Mandelbaum — hosted its 31st annual gift-giving event, at the Five Towns Community Center in Lawrence on Dec. 24.
More than 200 families in need received clothing, wrapped toys and winter essentials for all of their family members.
Roughly 150 volunteers braved the bitter cold to hand out presents, and bring joy to residents’ faces on Christmas Eve.
Santa Claus and his two elves made a special surprise visit, and the Police Activity League Rockettes, led by Maria Rose Guzzardo, performed for the crowd.
“It really is a community effort, and we’ve empowered hundreds of people of all faiths, genders and race,” Mandelbaum said. “Many people don’t get this in their homes, so we posted in the schools and tell people they don’t have to be at risk if they want gifts, they can come.”
Steve Bernstein, a volunteer who has served on the board of Rock and Wrap it Up! since 1990, has participated in the gift-giving event every year.
“There’s a lot of people who are in need in this community, and the people who can should be giving,” Bernstein said. “I am in that position where I am fortunate that I can give back to the community.”
Bernstein, who’s also involved with the Marion & Aaron Gural JCC, helped build the Rina Shkolnik Kosher Food Pantry at the S.H.O.P in Cedarhurst in 2018, which the JCC supports.
“It’s very gratifying to be able to give back,” Bernstein added. “When you see a little boy who gets a basketball, it’s like you gave him a brick of gold. This helps give people a second chance at life, and that’s what we want.”
The week prior to the giveaway, 70 community members helped wrap the presents at the Woodmere Fire House.
“One of the keys is that the whole community feels a part of this, so one of my friends 15 years ago was the fire commissioner, David DeSetta, and he arranged for us to be in the firehouse about five or six nights prior to the holiday,” Mandelbaum said.
Most of the volunteers were students from the Hewlett-Woodmere and Lawrence school districts, who needed community service hours.
“It takes a village basically to raise and to get everything wrapped,” Mandelbaum added. “We’ve been blessed to have kids who need community service, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.”
Volunteers distributed articles of clothing for every age, gender and size, which ranged from baby to double extra-large, ensuring that anyone who came would leave with new clothing.
The New York Giants donated a majority of the clothing for the boys and men. The football team donates clothing from its summer tryout.
“What they do more than anything else is make sure the community gets it, and that it doesn’t get sold,” Mandelbaum said. “They’re working with us now as a partner. The key for them is to have community outreach, and over 20 years ago, they became our first partner to give us their stadium food.”
In addition to the food pantry run by Rock and Wrap it Up!, the food goes to the veterans market, which is held on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings at the Five Towns Community Center during the cold months.
Due to renovations at the community center, which will be known as the Greater Five Towns Community Center, the pantry will be moving to the old Inwood Buccaneer Athletic Club building on Lawrence Avenue, next month.
Marianela Lizana Plaza, the first vice commander of the Lawrence-Cedarhurst American Legion Post 339, always lends a helping hand to Rock and Wrap it Up!, picking up food at Trader Joe’s and volunteering at the annual gift-giving event and Thanksgiving food plate donation.
“I do this every year,” Plaza said. “Since I speak Spanish, I can coordinate with people in their native language. It feels amazing because these are the people who need it. Christmas is not about what you get, it’s about what you give.”
In addition to ensuring that communication between the volunteers and the people they are helping runs smoothly, Plaza makes sure the families are represented and well taken care of.
“It’s all about giving, helping out the less fortunate,” she said. “I was less fortunate when I came to live in this country. I was 8 years old, and I didn’t have a lot. Now I have a little bit more, and I can share that, and I can share my time, which is a gift.”
