39.0°,
Fair Kids ‘cop’ holiday gifts at Matty’s Toy Shop
Children crowded into Matty’s Toy Shop in Hewlett for the third annual Michael Geraldi-Ray Abear Memorial Holiday Shop with a Cop on Dec. 3, sponsored by Project Thank A Cop.
Geraldi was a NYPD officer who died on Sept. 1, 2020 of a brain aneurysm while on the job.
An Inwood native, he worked in the store, Movieland video, in the portion of the Peninsula Shopping Center where Matty’s Toy Shop is now.
Abear, a detective with the Queens Special Victims Squad, died on April 13, 2020, from Covid-19, after what officials called “a presumed exposure while on duty.”
Project Thank A Cop was established by Wantagh resident Maegan Fox to show support and appreciation to law enforcement members.
The nine-hour event included law enforcement members, the North Pole Express and Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus. Christie & Brian Goldstein sold the PTAC Shop With a Cop ornaments again this year and have raised more than $900 in donations, Geraldi’s children said at the community tree lighting on Dec. 4.
