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Mostly Cloudy Greg Ingino is Freeport Businessperson of the Year
Greg Ingino, who is both executive director of the Woodward Children’s Center and the second vice president of the Freeport Chamber of Commerce, has been named Freeport Businessperson of the Year. He was congratulated at the Nassau Council of Chambers of Commerce Businessperson of the Year and Legislative Breakfast at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury on Oct. 29.
To be eligible for the honor, candidates must be active members of the chamber in their communities, owners or managers of local businesses and people who have made important contributions to the welfare of the community.
Ingino has taught and administrated at Woodward Children’s Center for 42 years. The school accepts children whose personal challenges, such as autism or emotional trauma, have impeded their success in mainstream schools or Board of Cooperative Educational Services programs. Woodward is certified to teach ages 5 (kindergarten) to 21, but mostly serves middle and high school students. The goal is to enable the students to return to their school districts before age 18, or to qualify for private or vocational programs through which they can develop a career.
In a written public thank-you to his Freeport colleagues, Ingino said, “As the executive director of the Woodward Children’s Center, I have strived to be a servant leader. Having been a special educator since 1979 and taking on the role of executive director of the Woodward Children’s Center in 2010, I have had the privilege to lead a vision to be one of the most innovative educational programs in New York.”
In his thank-you, Ingino warmly acknowledged Woodward Principal Danielle Colucci, Woodward’s staff of teachers and other school personnel and the Woodward board of directors. “The Woodward Children’s Center has become one of best educational, therapeutic and family support facilities in the New York area,” Ingino said.
For Ingino, the path to this distinction began with the discovery of his passion: connecting with students who seemed distant, unreachable. He was a student-teacher in Mastic Beach in the late 1970s when a boy in his classroom suddenly threw books in the air, overturned a school desk and ran out. Ingino followed the boy and talked him into returning to class. The boy apologized to his teachers and classmates and continued his schoolwork.
Ingino became a special-ed. teacher at the Woodward Children’s Center in 1979. Back then, he said, it was less like a school and more like a mental health center, with a modest grove of woods surrounding the building, but the classrooms were not always peaceful.
“The kids were boisterous,” Ingino said. “It was a culture shock for me.” Yet, even on the day when all of his students left the classroom en masse, Ingino knew he had found his calling.
“A friend of mine told me, ‘You have to reach them,’” Ingino said. He found moments like an impromptu ball game to get closer to his students and establish rapport. Using multiple teaching and learning methods, he successfully honed his approaches, helping students discover their strengths rather than sinking in frustration over their weaknesses.
But personal success in the classroom was one thing. Business success for the school as a whole was another. In 2010, when Ingino became executive director, Woodward had only 52 students and was threatened with closing.
Aided by Colucci, Ingino reinvented the school’s business side. His first step was to increase the number of family tours of the school from five per month to 25.
“We also had to develop a product, so that parents would want their child to come here,” Ingino said. “We really felt that if we could build something, really modernize it, the students would come, and that’s exactly what happened.”
He credited Colucci with updating the school’s technology and helping him expand ways to address student needs. The school not only offers Regents-level academics, but also clinical services, speech therapy, music therapy, art therapy and small class sizes.
“We’re really one-stop shopping,” Ingino said. “When families come to see the school, they say it’s a feeling of being home.”
Ingino recounts one story after another of students transformed by the school’s intensive, creative support. “We’ve had students who come here hardly speaking at all, very introverted. Now they’re performing in a Broadway play,” he said. The school produced its own version of “The Lion King” last summer, a particularly triumphant achievement coming out of the pandemic.
Ingino recounted stories of students who found illustrious careers, like some who reached high levels of military service, or the boy who became a Harlem Globetrotter. But the quieter stories, in Ingino’s eyes, are equally impactful, like the one about a young woman whose academic inability denied her the life dream of being a nurse. After graduation from Woodward, she found work at Friendly’s and Home Depot. Eventually, she discovered her niche as an aide for hospice patients.
“She has her own apartment, and she’s making a living,” Ingino said. “She’s doing what she always wanted to do, and that’s a home run to us.”
Woodward’s colleagues said that he definitely deserved his award. Saundra Vinelli, a school social worker and a Woodward veteran of 34 years, said, “Greg Ingino is a diligent, kind, empathetic man with a great heart and love for people. He has understanding and love for this special population. It’s not a surprise that he was chosen. It’s a fitting honor for a man who has worked assiduously with students who have special needs.”
Colucci came to Woodward 15 years ago, and has been principal for 10 years. “The kids flourish here,” she said. “Anything that we want to add or imagine, Greg makes it happen. His biggest strength is to connect with people and get them to donate their time, talent and money. … He has built so many connections in the community, like work-study programs where students apprentice with nursing homes, restaurants and retail businesses in the area.”
Ted Levine, the vice president of the Board of Directors of Woodward Children’s Center, met Ingino upon joining the board 20 years ago. “To me, it’s an honor to speak about Greg,” said Levine. “He’s a really sharp, keen businessperson, absolutely involved with the community. He’s the ultimate networker. He built a showcase example of education with Woodward. If I’d been a voting member of the Freeport Chamber of Commerce, I’d have voted for him.”
