By:JOSEPH KELLARD
"He always volunteered and he made a difference in the lives of others, and that's why he deserved the award," said Eleanor Feingold about her husband, Roger Steven Feingold, who was honored posthumously at the annual Town of Hempstead Make A Difference Awards on October 23.
Feingold, 55, an Oceanside resident since 1973, was stricken with brain cancer and died in March, but that night at the pavilion at Town Hall in Hempstead his long and extensive volunteer work was recognized. Eleanor and the two children she raised with Roger, Leon and Sarah, accepted the award on his behalf.
"During his lifetime, Roger S. Feingold embodied a spirit of generosity and volunteerism seldom evidenced in our society," said Supervisor Richard Guardino. "As one of Long Island's most active good samaritans, Roger was involved with numerous projects for Cerebral Palsy of Nassau County and distinguished himself as a leader in scouting with the Hewlett-East Rockaway Boy Scout Troop 108 and other community projects. I am proud that we were able to honor someone who was so deserving and always went out of his way to help others. His death was a great loss but his legacy continues."
Feingold, an accountant, performed much of his volunteer work through community involvement organizations that are arms of the Masons. Those groups assisted by his efforts include: Warden's Association, First Nassau Youth Committee, Public Involvement and Awareness Committee, Child ID programs at Cerebral Palsy of Nassau County, and Royal Arch, where he earned the position of high priest. More recently, he was chosen grand representative of the grand lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Yugoslavia.
In addition to being founder and first president of the South Shore chapter of REACT International, a volunteer highway safety and emergency group, he was also an emergency medical technician, spokesman for drug-free school zones, and organizer and cook for blood drives.
"When people lose someone, they feel sad because they will never see that loved one again. When I lost Roger, I felt something else. I felt sorry for all the people that he did not have time to help."
"I have tried to pick up good and bad habits from all the people in my life. And every experience of mine, good and bad, has given me a chance to learn a new lesson. But my ultimate hero, my prototype of all that was right in the world, was my father," said Feingold's son, Leon.
Recipients of the Make A Difference Award must be volunteers in the community of the Town of Hempstead, and they cannot be paid their services. Each year, a committee of eight town officials select the 13 recipients out of approximately 200-250 nominees whose biographies and stories are sent in by those nominating them.
"It depends on the story," a town official said. "Sometimes, when you read a story from an applicant, you kind of fall in with the person because their story hits you. And what usually strikes us is someone who goes above and beyond what the average person would do. Those are the type of people we usually select."
Feingold was among several honorees including a 10-year-old boy who collected more than 1,600 books for needy people.
"It was a very warm, touching feeling at the ceremony and the reception afterward," said Eleanor, who married Roger in 1971.
In what they regard as a continuation of his volunteer work, Eleanor and her family established the 'Roger Steven Feingold Good Samaritan Fund.'
The Feingold Good Samaritan recipient would be a "cause or individual" who fit the criteria of "spending the least amount of money while doing the most good for the most people," Eleanor said.
"I want the fund to last as if his Roger's life went on every year and I want people to do good deeds, which he always did," she said. "I just keep asking myself, 'What would he say? What would he want to do?'"
Funds will be awarded annually, at or around the time of Roger's birthday on Oct. 5. This year's stipend was given to a friend of Eleanor's who works for an organization that is giving to the most needy cases -- like a dishwasher at the World Trade Center who was without health insurance.
"That's what I think Roger would have liked to have done," Eleanor said.
