A woman serving her community

Claudine Hall has been an Elmont resident all 58 years of her life. After her father died when she was just 10, she was raised by her single mother. Her childhood experiences, Hall said, were part of what inspired her to get involved in the community by way of the Jamaica Square Improvement League.

That involvement has only deepened over the years, and for everything she has done for the community, the Herald is proud to name Hall its 2024 Person of the Year.

“I never had to want for anything,” she recalled of her childhood. “So I don’t want any child that’s coming from a single-parent home to have to want.” That concern has motivated Hall throughout her life.

She graduated from Sewanhaka High School in 1984, and was majoring in elementary education and American studies at SUNY Old Westbury College until she dropped out in 1986 to take a job at Manufacturers Hanover Bank in Hicksville. The money was too good to turn down, she recalled.

That same year, Hall began attending Elmont’s Jamaica Square Improvement League, a civic association that focuses on the needs of Elmont residents. Meanwhile, Hall’s pastor at Emanuel Baptist Church asked her to start an NAACP chapter in town. So she began focusing on resolving issues in Elmont’s neighborhoods in her free time.

“There were a lot of racial issues going on in the Elmont community at the time,” Hall, who is still a member of the Emanuel Baptist, said. “My pastor felt the need for NAACP representation.”

Then, in 1987, a black man was shot and killed in Elmont by a local police officer. That’s when Hall began talking with black residents about their experiences.

She recalls seeing her friends at Sewanhaka High being threatened by young white men because of their skin color. While Hall largely avoided being a target, she wanted to help address the problem.

Membership in the NAACP chapter eventually declined, so Hall turned her focus to the Improvement League. When its vice president, Barbara Crawford, stepped down, Hall was asked to take over for her.

“Being a lifelong resident of the Elmont community,” she said, “it was a no-brainer.” Especially in a community that has faced major challenges over the years, including widespread drug use and quality-of-life issues.

When the president of the league, Denise Byfield-Aboagye, retired around 2005, she asked Hall to take over. Hall agreed, hesitantly at first, but she soon began to view her new responsibilities as a joy.

A few years ago, Hall tried to step down herself, hoping to reduce her workload, but Jean Bradley, a founding member of the league, begged her not to let the organization fail. “I noticed that nobody was taking on the role,” Hall said. “I would sit in the audience and my heart just hurt. So my mother said to me, ‘What are you going to do?’ And I said, ‘I can’t let it just fall.’”

Hall has been president of the league for almost 20 years now. In 2006, around the time she took over, she retired from her job at the bank and returned to SUNY Old Westbury to finish her bachelor’s degree. Now she works for the Town of Hempstead.

Mimi Pierre-Johnson, president of the Elmont Cultural Center, has known Hall since 2000. The two met at Emanuel Baptist and began working together on the Elmont Vision Plan in 2006.

The proposal detailed plans for community improvement and development along Hempstead Turnpike. While the Town of Hempstead unanimously voted in favor of the plan, it never came to fruition because the coalition that devised it changed when some key players left Elmont. But, Pierre-Johnson said, the public discussion brought out the best of Elmont. “We brought the community together,” she said, adding of Hall, “That, I know, is near and dear to her heart.”

Hall said she has remained dedicated to helping the children of Elmont lead happy and healthy lives. She organizes a backpack giveaway every year to provide school supplies to children in need, and she is currently waiting to be matched with a child in the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America program. She is a former leader of Girl Scout Troop 1651, which meets at Emanuel Baptist.

“I’ve never had any children,” Hall said. “So these are my children. I get to watch them grow, and I feel like I had a part in their life.”

She honors students at Improvement League meetings, attends Elmont and Sewanhaka high school graduations and speaks at school board meetings.

“I believe that for whatever reason, God did not allow me to get married and have children,” she said. “But He has never left me childless.”

Pierre-Johnson said that Hall often refers to Pierre-Johnson’s grown daughter as her own, and that Hall has connected with other children by working at the Emanuel Baptist nursery. “They’re her children from another mother,” Pierre-Johnson said. “She takes kids to her heart.”

Carrie Solages, a Nassau County legislator who has worked extensively with Hall, said she is always looking out for kids in the community. Solages attended Hall’s most recent backpack giveaway in August.

“It’s not just about doing a successful backpack giveaway,” he said of her work. “It’s about really putting love and care into the packages she gives to families. In every holiday, in every crisis, she’s always looking out for her neighbors.”

Hall is a great leader for all of Elmont, Solages said. “She has done a lot to help people,” he said. “She’s just a great person.”

And while the two haven’t always seen eye to eye on the issues, there are many that they agree on, and they often work together to improve the quality of life in a community they share a love for. “No matter what, we have respect for each other,” Solages said.

Hall now balances her work for the league with her roles in Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Nassau Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, a historically Black sorority she joined in 2019. As if that weren’t enough, she is the community liaison and a trustee of Elmont’s Police Activity League.

She also cares for her 93-year-old mother — who has said a number of times that Claudine must be exhausted by all her work in the community.

“It’s challenging, but I make time,” Hall said. “I love what I do, and my mother knows I love what I do.”

Pierre-Johnson said Hall is “true Elmont.” and will never fully retire. “If she tells you that she’s retiring, don’t believe it,” Pierre-Johnson laughed.

“I don’t think I’ll ever stop,” Hall said. “There’s always something to be done or can be done in your community. I love helping people. This is just who I am.”