Karen Papasergiou of Sea Cliff was recently named the 2024 Sea Cliff Civic Association White Cap Award Winner.
The 65-year-old Papasergiou grew up in Glen Cove, but said that she always knew that she wanted to live in Sea Cliff. In addition to her deep-rooted community involvement in Sea Cliff and Glen Cove, Papasergiou is an outdoors person, a former teacher, a sign language interpreter, a mother, and a grandmother.
“I step in wherever I can,” Papasergiou said. “I love this area, and I always have.”
Papasergiou remains deeply involved in the village, serving on the traffic committee as well as president of the Coalition to Save Hempstead Harbor for 17 years. She remains a member of the executive board as a former president. The Coalition to Save Hempstead Harbor is a nonprofit that uses citizen science, advocacy, and plans to address the environmental challenges faced by Hempstead Harbor and its surrounding communities.
Papasergiou found out about her victory at Fosters, a restaurant at 39 Roslyn Ave. in Sea Cliff on Feb. 23. She said that she was brought to the restaurant believing that she would be there for a meeting for the Coalition to Save Hempstead Harbor.
Papasergiou finally caught on after seeing the Sea Cliff Civic Association banner hanging up in the restaurant, “I was completely surprised,” she said. “The White Cap Awards are something that I never thought of for me”
The name of the award, founded in 1965, comes from the foam that forms on the top of waves, in honor of how award winners are community members who rise to the occasion.
The village offers several community-based volunteer organizations including the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the Coalition to Save Hempstead Harbor, Environmental Conservation Commission, the Sea Cliff Fire Department, the Arts Council, and the Civic Association Board.
Ann DiPietro, president of the Civic Association, explained that members of local organizations such as the Fire Department or the beautification committee can nominate residents. Papasergiou’s friend, Liz Luciano, wrote the nominating letter and her husband Nino Luciano presented the nomination.
The nominees are then voted on by the members of the civic association, with the winners invited to the award ceremony without being told that they have won.
Winners of the award are typically honored at the Sea Cliff Yacht Club, however after the coronavirus pandemic took Sea Cliff and the rest of the world by storm, the event was not held in person for 4 years.
The event returned in June 2023 with couple Kevin and Jane McGilloway, the former village trustee and a current member of the 325 committee, Dina Epstein, former village deputy mayor and an active supporter for environmental causes, and Elizabeth Weinstein, who was one of the founders the Coalition to Save Hempstead Harbor all being honored.
“Sea Cliff is very lucky to have people year after year who do so much to make our village a finer, kinder, more beautiful place,” DiPietro said. “Karen is someone who has done so much to make all our lives better,”
Papasergiou said the part that she was most overwhelmed by was reading the names of the list of past White Cap award winners that she would be joining. “Seeing that list was humbling,” she said. “I was so appreciative to the Sea Cliff Civic Association for even considering me,”
Papasergiou said that sharing the joy with her daughter and her husband was the best part of the award. “It makes me happy that she gets to witness this, and my husband is super supportive and the best companion I could ask for,” she said. “I’m a very lucky woman.”
