Masha Benitez gave back to her “community” way before she could even spell the word.
At age 5, she was leaving an orphanage for special needs children in the Russian city of Izhevsk when she communicated with her adopted mother, Michele Quigley, asking her if it was OK to give her clothing and shoes to the others. The communication part was a challenge, at first, because she didn’t speak English, and Quigley didn’t speak Russian.
“She’d kept her things in a cubbie,” Quigley said, recalling the sight of the young girl picking out the items each child would like. “She just took a few pieces of memorabilia.”
From that charitable act, which led to many years of collecting money — more than $185,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation — to her work as a dog trainer and her tenacity in overcoming multiple surgeries, including a double-lung transplant in 2023, Benitez has been named the 2025 Long Beach Herald Person of the Year.
“I just thought it was a great story,” Colleen Murphy, who nominated her Long Beach neighbor, said. “She’s such a doer. She’s got a fighting spirit and doesn’t let her health get in the way.”
Now 22 years old, Benitez works part-time as a physical therapy aide with Orlin & Cohen Orthopedic Group in Lynbrook.
“What makes me so tough? I don’t think that’s the right question,” Benitez, who stands 4-feet-9, said. “What makes me so resilient? I think what makes me so resilient, and if someone was put in my shoes, it’s no different. I’m just navigating what’s in front me.”
Benitez underwent more than 13 hours of surgery during a life-saving double-lung transplant in May 2022. She was initially placed on the waiting list for the procedure in March 2020.
By her count, she has undergone 10 surgical procedures, including five ear surgeries and two open-heart surgeries, and had her gall bladder and appendix removed.
“You just learn how to navigate your life, just like when you are put in a very tough situation,” she said. “You learn how to navigate and become stronger, because I’m not a superhero.”
Some might think otherwise. At age 5, she began raising money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the charitable organization that grants wishes for children enduring a critical illness. She then became a recipient of a wish by going on a Disney cruise a year later.
“She had drawn a picture of swimming in the sea next to a boat and she never, never had been swimming or on a boat,” Quigley said, explaining how the idea for the cruise was hatched.
“That was when I was no longer scared of doctors,” Benitez said about the Make-A-Wish trip, recalling her days in the Russian orphanage when she had to be held down to have blood drawn, and noting that she was promised candy that she never received.
Her fundraising has become legendary in Long Beach, teaming up with Pete Meyers and Kevin McCarthy, the founders of the Long Beach Polar Bear Splash, and Bright Eye Beer Co., also in the city.
In existence for 25 years, Polar Bear Splash has raised money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation since 2001, in honor of Paulie Bradley, the son of Meyers’ neighbors, Mike and Patty Bradley, who died of leukemia at age 4 in 1997.
Benitez has become a community superhero for all she does, while dealing with her multitude of health problems.
“She’s small, tough and feisty,” Meyers said. “She says, ‘Give me $1,000.’ You can’t say no. She has overcome a lot. She’s a great kid and a real fighter.”
Her feistiness was on full display several years ago.
“Masha was 9 or 10, and she said, ‘Mom stay in the car. When you’re with me, they look to you. This is my job,” Quigley said about her daughter’s fundraising.
Benitez’s health struggles began at age 3, when she started to experience breathing problems at the orphanage. She was brought to the United States and sent to Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park for heart surgery. Gift of Life Inc., founded in 1975 by a Brooklyn Rotary Club to help children in need of corrective heart surgery, paid for the trip.
Mother Michele Quigley and father Tony Benitez met Masha at the Ronald McDonald House at Cohen Children’s, and decided almost immediately to adopt her.
“She basically chose me as her mom,” Quigley said.
Masha never knew her birth mother. In a previous Herald story, she said she was mistreated at the orphanage, taunted because she was unable to speak clearly due to hearing problems, and was even struck by frustrated staff members.
The adoption process took more than two years. The Russian government served as an obstacle for Americans to adopt Russian children, under an order by President Vladimir Putin.
“I am so grateful for the experience to be her mother,” Quigley said. “We’re so lucky to have found her.”
The fundraising Benitez undertakes for the Make-A-Wish Foundation is her way of saying thank you for not only her wish, but also for all of the wishes that have been granted over the years.
“It’s giving back to the organization,” she said, adding that dealing with the assortment of health issues has “opened my eyes to live my life the way I want with my limitations.”
She said that she’s currently in what she called “semi-quarantine” because of immune issues related to organ rejection. “(It’s) all good,” she said, adding that her family, including her older brother, Giancarlo, supports her “in what I need to do.”
Quigley said her daughter “doesn’t want anyone to feel sorry for her,” adding, “she’s my inspiration. She acts like she’s here for a short time and has a lot to accomplish. She’s conscious of not wasting time.”
