H-W Friend-raiser: Making community a big part of life

Matt Tinkelman, a senior at Hewlett-Woodmere High School, has always wanted to live in the kind of community you see in the movies where everyone knows each other so in 2009 he took it upon himself to create an event that would bring people together to celebrate the arts, the Hewlett-Woodmere Community Friend-Raiser.

Tinkelman, the Herald’s “Person of the Year” in ‘09, describes himself as a “music kid.” He said the first Friend-Raiser was a huge undertaking with a turnout of more than 1,400 people. “It was a lot of work,” he said. “To say I lost sleep is an understatement — I didn’t sleep.”

This year, the Friend-Raiser is on Feb. 15 from 5 to 8 p.m. at Hewlett High School and not only includes Hewlett-Woodmere but the Lawrence Woodmere Academy, Hebrew Academy of Long Beach, Kulanu, Stella K. Abraham, Five Towns Senior Center, United Chorale Society, Young Artists of the Five Towns, Dr. Steven Kresch U.S. ballroom dancing champions Dan Shapiro (a Hewlett High student) and Catherine Kovalyova, and the high school’s vocal group that performed at Carnegie Hall last week. Admission is $5 per person. There is a snow date of Thursday, Feb. 17.

Barbra Feldman, the director of Lawrence Woodmere Academy’s Summer Program, said the school participated in the event last year and that this year the lower school chorus, middle and upper schools will be performing. Last year, the academy’s headmaster, Alan Bernstein, played his saxophone alongside the students.

“It’s a wonderful mission they’re trying to achieve,” Feldman said about Hewlett-Woodmere. “It was such a positive thing and really the first time that people from different groups came together for children, the arts and to be a part of a community.”

Rachele Tinkelman said she couldn’t be more pleased of her son’s efforts. “Needless to say, we are very proud of Matthew’s tremendous accomplishments, academically and musically, his leadership abilities, his work ethic, and his ability to make a difference in the community and in everything he becomes involved with,” she said. “Most of all, he is a genuine, kind, compassionate and caring person.”