Scott J. Beigel Memorial Fund event goes on despite fire in storage facility

A Dix Hills-based nonprofit, started by the parents of a teacher killed in the 2018 Parkland massacre to provide camp scholarships to children touched by gun violence, fears it lost years of costly equipment, promotional material and giveaways to kids after a fire at a Plainview self-storage facility last week.

Despite the fire, the Scott J. Beigel Memorial Fund pieced together enough equipment and supplies Saturday to host its annual camper basketball fundraiser in Glen Cove.

Linda Beigel Schulman, who started the fund in response to the 2018 murder of her son and 16 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, said two third-floor units at Safeguard Self Storage contained all of the nonprofit's supplies. That includes hundreds of computers, backpacks, socks and sneakers she expected to distribute to campers in the coming weeks and cases of wine that were to be used for a casino-style fundraiser next month in Old Westbury.

While Beigel Schulman has been unable to enter the storage units, she expects that smoke and water damage probably destroyed most of the material.

“There was signage, scoreboards and everything that we sell, whether it's sweatshirts or towels or T-shirts, and everything that we use for all our events,” she said. “Everything is in the storage facility, which had the sprinklers go off. The electricity hasn't been on since they had the fire. I'm assuming everything's moldy.”

Douglas Eaton, of Parkland, Florida, the fund's treasurer, pegged the expected losses in the tens of thousands of dollars.

The fire isn't the only setback for Beigel Schulman. Seven weeks ago, her husband, Michael, suffered a severe stroke on the right side of his body that has left him unable to walk. He is now in a rehab facility, she said.

Without access to the storage units, Beigel Schulman quickly purchased replacement basketballs, scoreboards, snacks and camper T-shirts for Saturday's event.

“We did what we had to do to run the event because there's no way in the world that the memorial fund would ever cancel the event,” she said.

Nassau County police said the May 4 fire may be linked to work being conducted on the storage facility's solar panels.

Mark Maurice, manager of the Safeguard Self Storage in Massapequa, said the fire was isolated to the roof and didn't spread inside the building. He was unsure of damage to individual units.

James Hickman, Nassau's assistant chief fire marshal, said there is probably water and smoke damage in individual units “but I don't know to what degree.”

Oyster Bay spokesman Brian Nevin said the town received certification letters Friday from the business' architect and engineer that the building was safe for cleanup activities. 

Last year, the fund raised $378,000 to send 262 children to sleepaway camp.

Beigel Schulman hoped to increase those numbers this summer.

But with the cost to replace the items lost in the fire — she is unsure how much insurance will cover — it is now unclear how many campers the fund can help this year.

“We'll have to do more fundraising to replace all the stuff,” Eaton said. “I don't think we're going to shut down over it. But it's certainly disruptive.”

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.