By Carrie James
No, James Skinner has not been deposed as the chamber's president, but he did have a stand-in for about an hour. Fifth-grader Theresa Rodriguez acted as chamber president during a "town-hall meeting" at McVey Elementary School that gave fifth-graders a look into what the East Meadow Chamber of Commerce does at its meetings and how the organization benefits the community.
"We have a youth committee, and one of the things is that we get a youth grant each year, which we use for various programs," said Ted Rosenthal, youth committee chairman. "The youth of our community are our future, but how are they going to be a part of it if they don't know who we [the chamber] are? They are at the perfect age to know who we are and what we do."
Earlier in the year, Rosenthal and current chamber President James Skinner visited the fifth-grade students at McVey Elementary School to give them a brief introduction to the East Meadow Chamber and prepare them for the Second Annual Town Hall Meeting, which took place Nov. 30.
At the meeting, a group of students, playing the roles of board members and chamber officers, enacted part of a simulated chamber meeting. President Rodriguez called for various committee and officer reports.
As a whole, with the help of the fifth-graders in the audience, the board discussed what to do with a $5,000 grant. The options were to buy benches for the town-square project or help a local deli that had recently had a fire.
Skinner stepped in to field questions and opinions from the crowd on how to spend the money, giving the students a firsthand look at how decisions are made by the chamber, or in government.
"In business, you have insurance," Skinner told the crowd after his son James Skinner asked if the deli had fire insurance. "However, the deli did ask for help from the chamber."
In the end, the board decided to split the money between the two options -- $3,000 to help the deli and $2,000 to buy benches.
Skinner then fielded more questions from the crowd of students about how the chamber operates, what it does for the community and how they can get involved.
"Hopefully, we learned a lot more about the business community," Skinner said.
Several chamber members and community officials also came out to talk with the students about the importance of getting involved in the community, whether in the chamber, a civic organization or on their own.
"You can do something to get involved in your community," said Hempstead Town Councilman Gary Hudes. "I encourage you to please help out and get involved in any way you can."
This is the second year that the chamber hosted the town-hall meeting at McVey Elementary School, which school Principal Dr. Rita Meyerowitz welcomed.
"It introduces them to town government and how town government works," she said. "It shows them the different ways they can get involved, either today or in the future."
Rosenthal said they plan to do the town-hall meeting at McVey Elementary again next year, and he hopes the chamber might expand the program to other elementary schools.
"We don't know yet how we can expand it further, but if we can, we'd love to," he said. "We want to include other schools."
