Huntington mural paints a vivid memory of veterans

It started with an urgent question: "Do you paint?"

"Well, um, no," I replied to a woman standing on a scaffold at a boarded-up building at Park Avenue and Main Street in Huntington early one Saturday morning.

She had a paintbrush in her hand. And behind her was a larger-than-life mural depicting the late Lenny Totora, a proud Korean War veteran and beloved local camera store owner, as he waved from a St. Patrick's Day parade. Lenny, who spent a life advocating for veterans, died Feb. 22 at the age of 79.

"We could use some help," the woman, Loretta Guglielmino, said with such conviction that I immediately volunteered my artist son for the project. But soon I was helping too, cleaning up and anchoring measuring tape for Erich Preis, the mural's energetic artistic director.

In three weeks, a boarded-up gasoline station, not far from Lenny's camera store, had been transformed into a place of reverence. Drivers honk in support. Lenny's family has visited. And there's an almost constant stream of visitors.

This has become a special place for Lenny's memory, which means it's now a special place for veterans and those who honor them.

"I was at Lenny's funeral," said Anne Archer, who lives nearby, "and I saw this a few days later and I'm running across the street at 7 in the morning shouting, 'Is that Lenny? Is that Lenny?' "

Bob McLaughlin stopped by on his bicycle and was back a day later to remove nails from boards that would serve as canvas. He also lent the table that holds a collection of paints being used to convert wood and bricks into images of American soldiers from colonial times to the present.

"It's for Lenny and it's for the veterans," McLaughlin said, "Anything I can do, I'll do."

One visitor's car tag told us - long before he did - that he was a World War II veteran. And last week, a young man who had just returned from Iraq walked over.

He cried while looking at the work being done by Erich, Loretta and Jane Spalholz, who is painting George Washington who addressed Huntington residents on that very corner after the Revolutionary War.

At one point, the young man lifted his shirt for the artists to see. His chest and arm showed the horrible scars of shrapnel. "Thank you so much for what you are doing," he said.

On Easter Sunday (not long after a family stopped for a picture in front of Washington), Fred Barrell, a Vietnam War veteran, walked over - minutes after Erich the Energetic decided to add panels to the mural depicting Iraqi, Afghanistan and Vietnam vets. Complete with appropriate helicopters.

"The world is full of artists," Barrel said, looking on as Erich sketched a quick outline of trio of soldiers who appeared, even in crude form, to be stepping out from the brick wall. "How many are willing to donate their time to make something like this?"

The mural is only a beginning, a steppingstone toward a larger goal, according to Dominic Malvella, who owns the property. He's got a warehouse in Copiague that he would love to see converted into a state-of-the-art veterans center, perhaps with temporary housing.

"There are 4,000 homeless veterans on Long Island," he said. "The way to honor Lenny is to get veterans help."

Which is why the ongoing project at the boarded-up gasoline station, while temporary, is important.

It puts veterans like Lenny, Fred and the young man fresh home from Iraq out there in plain sight to challenge us.

To do whatever it takes to remember their sacrifice and help them when they get home.