Friday, October 2, 2026
Long Island Creative Arts Inc. hosted a scholarship fund and musical instrument auction at American Legion Post 1087 in West Hempstead on Sunday. The event raised money for the James and Ethel Barry Town-Gown Scholarship and The Joshua L. Brandon Memorial Music Scholarship, both offered to West Hempstead high school seniors.
The auction was co-sponsored by Post 1087 and Robin Poirier Allstate of West Hempstead. It raised over $1,700, including a $500 donation from Post 1087 Commander Peter Johansen. About half of the 128 instruments on offer were sold.
Brian Barry, a former educator in the West Hempstead school district and at Hofstra University, founded Long Island Creative Arts in 2016, to promote the development of children’s critical thinking and problem-solving skills using music, art, film and other creative arts. Barry had created the Brandon scholarship in 2005, after Josh Brandon, his store manager at the since closed Luna Music in West Hempstead died unexpectedly at age 50.
“Josh was a positive force in Luna Music becoming bigger than what it was,” Barry said. “Everyone loved Josh. We would always have jam sessions at night after work. When he died, it was a shock; it was a tragedy.”
Barry, 48, a former fourth-generation resident of West Hempstead who now lives in East Rockaway, believes in the value of higher education, and wants to give more people access to it. “Being able to give money helps students further their education in a positive way,” he said. “Giving back to the community I grew up in and the school I taught at makes me feel good. Giving back has to come from your heart.”
Over the years, Barry has expanded his scholarship program, which now includes two in memory of both sets of his grandparents. His grandparents, James and Ethel Barry, and his godfather, Bill Effinger, moved their business, Berkeley Models, a model airplane company, to West Hempstead from Brooklyn in 1949.
Barry uses them as an example of the different arts-related aspirations and life paths he wants to foster with his scholarships “It might have not beenprestigious,” he said of Berkeley Models, “but these models were popular, and people built them all across Long Island. It was a job that mattered to my grandparents, because it affected people in a positive way.”
“I want to give the underdogs a chance,” Barry added. “I want students besides the ones who receive all the awards to have a chance at a scholarship. I look for kids who are talented and smart, but different.”
Jackson Hoh, a senior at West Hempstead Secondary School, and a Boy Scout in West Hempstead’s Troop 240, helped clean and catalog the musical instruments in the fundraiser as part of his Eagle Scout Project. The instruments were from Barry’s personal collection, and the former Luna School of Music, which was part of Luna Music.
“I was introduced to Mr. Barry because my Eagle Scout Project is the cleaning and reorganization of the storage areas of the American Legion,” Hoh said. “My troop and the legion have been helping each other out for years.”
Barry is an Eagle Scout as well, and a member of SAG-AFTRA, the trade union for media professionals, and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He earned two master’s degrees from Hofstra, where he studied fine arts, film, communications, and humanities. He has also been a member of the West Hempstead Knights of Columbus for 31 years.
Sunday’s event included a 50/50 raffle at the door and another raffle for a new Silverton acoustic guitar. There were also $5, $10 and $20 raffles for other instruments, including strings, brass and drum sets.
Barry will present this year’s scholarships seniors at West Hempstead High School at 7 p.m. on June 8.
Rescuing Families, a Franklin Square-based charity that builds homes for people with disabilities, will hold a fundraising auction of its own in July, when it will offer the instruments that did not sell on Sunday. The date is yet to be announced.
Barry praised the organization’s founder, Gina Cantone-Centauro, of Franklin Square, saying, “I’m blessed to have Rescuing Families as a collaborating organization, and Gina as a friend.”
