The Palacios family brings Huntington Station together for toy drives, cleanups and more

Every December for the past 16 years, Xavier Palacios and his wife, Laura, have turned his Huntington Station law office into an outpost for Santa’s workshop with an annual toy drive that makes Christmas happen for about 500 children..

What began as a small family effort has grown into a communitywide operation. And on Dec. 21, thanks to the Palacios family, community groups and an army of volunteers, gifts will once again be distributed under a decorated tent behind the New York Avenue law firm. High school teams will help wrap and assemble toys and the Huntington Manor Fire Department will be on hand with a fire truck to give children tours.

It’s just one of the ways the family has worked to give back to Huntington Station since founding their nonprofit Friends of Huntington Station Latin Quarter in 2010.

“If we find a need, we address it,” Laura Palacios said. “We’re doers.”

Xavier, 55, whose parents emigrated from Ecuador, grew up in Huntington Station and remembers the neighborhood’s tight-knit feel. The nonprofit was created along with Ed Perez, who is no longer active with the group, to revive that spirit and serve as a role model for the diverse community’s youth. The group’s guiding belief, according to its website, is that the solution to what challenges Huntington Station “is up to us.”

But they don’t do it alone, and often partner with other community organizations like Huntington Matters on events like the toy drive and annual cleanup.

“We’re patching gaps and, in partnership with other groups, have turned into advocates to make life better,” said June Margolin, president of Huntington Matters.

A family nonprofit

The Palacios, of Huntington Bay, largely self-fund the charity, which does not have staff and is registered as a community development nonprofit corporation, a category for organizations that support and revitalize communities. It has an annual budget of about $15,000.

The charity is a family affair, with daughters Sabrina, 28, Isabella, 17, and Violet, 15, helping, along with Palacios’ brother and sister-in-law, Steven and Jessica Palacios. Isabella, now a senior at Huntington High School, has brought in her lacrosse team and basketball team to help wrap presents and assemble bicycles, and daughter Violet this year wrote a grant application that brought in $10,000 for the scholarship fund from the Claire Friedlander Family Foundation. Eldest daughter Sabrina works as an attorney in New York City.

While they welcome others to join the group, Xavier Palacios noted community interest has decreased as violent crime has decreased and other nonprofits and community groups have organized. 

Movie nights, fashion shows

The Palacios’ nonprofit grew out of informal Saturday morning meetings where as many as 30 community members would meet and brainstorm ways to strengthen the community following a series of violent incidents in the years before the group was founded. The group launched movie nights, bike safety events, cleanups and even a backyard fashion show. But the toy drive, which serves families living below the poverty line, was the first project that truly energized the neighborhood.

“The community was super onboard,” said Laura Palacios, 48, a financial planner. “We had a spreadsheet with children’s names, age, gender, shoe and clothing size. They could take a list, ‘adopt’ a child, buy things and drop it off 10 days before the event.”

The toy drive is one of the events the Latin Quarter group began coordinating after a string of violent incidents resulted in residents lobbying police and town government for increased enforcement.

Xavier Palacios, whose practice includes immigration work, also is president of the Huntington school district’s board of education, where he has been a member since 2012, and was elected chair this spring of the Board of Advisors at Huntington Hospital, where he has been a board member since 2018.

Scholarships

Supporting students has become another focus. Since 2012, the nonprofit has awarded two to four scholarships annually to Huntington High School seniors.

One of last year’s recipients, Kimberly Panameno, 19, said her $2,500 award is helping her cover book expenses at St. Joseph’s University in Patchogue, where she is studying to become an English teacher. Panameno, the daughter of Salvadoran immigrants, hopes to return to Huntington High School as an educator.

As a mentor in her high school’s club, she helped newcomers from Central America navigate changes and adjust to the school. “I would tell them to get involved, play sports and don’t be shy,” she said.

An uncertain time

Xavier Palacios in particular has provided support regarding an issue that has roiled the nation. Since May, when the White House announced that it wanted to increase illegal immigration arrests from about 600 a day to more than 3,000 daily, immigrants nationwide — including adults and high school and college students on Long Island — have been arrested and deported. In September, Honduran native and Nassau County resident Santos Banegas Reyes died in the Nassau County Jail after being arrested by ICE, sparking outrage and questions about the circumstances surrounding his death. The arrest of Huntington Station resident Jonathan Interiano sparked protest after the El Salvador native was injured when he was detained by federal agents on Sept. 7.

Latinos make up about 30% of Huntington Station’s population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and as immigration enforcement activity has increased, Palacios has provided free legal advice and said he is willing to host “know your rights” information sessions through his law firm.

“When ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] came, he spent several hours at the church and helped people navigate and answered questions,” Rivera said.

While many Latino residents in Huntington Station have secure immigration status, Palacios noted a “sense of fear” in some parts of the community.

“It’s a tough balance in this unusual moment in our nation’s history,” he said.

'It seems to grow every year'

Participation also has grown for a spring cleanup that Friends of Huntington Station Latin Quarter organized beginning 14 years ago.

Their annual event — a collaborative effort with Huntington Matters for the past decade — now draws strong turnout from residents, business owners and local groups. It covers roughly a 3-mile length of Huntington Station’s business district and routinely brings out store owners and volunteers to freshen up the streets.

“It’s a total community event,” said Huntington Matters president June Margolin. “It’s great.”

Other business owners agree.

Christopher Eccleston, funeral director and owner of A.L. Jacobsen Funeral Home on New York Avenue, said the cleanups help foster future relationships as people come to know one another better.

“I’m happy they organize and get this [cleanup] thing together,” said Frank Cosentino, co-owner of County Line Hardware on West Hills Road, which often donates supplies, and president of the Huntington Station Business Improvement District. “It seems to grow every year and seems to be well participated in.”

The Latin Quarter group also works closely with the Huntington Assembly of God Church on New York Avenue and Helping Hand Rescue Mission, a local food pantry that also sponsors clothing, baby supplies, and school backpack distributions.

“I haven’t met more generous people than them,” said Daniel Rivera, senior pastor of the Huntington Assembly of God Church, of the Palacios family. “Huntington Station usually only gets bad news, but it’s a beautiful place to live and grow up. There’s a lot more good happening in the Station than bad.”

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the church, Helping Hand and Huntington Station Latin Quarter partnered from 2020 until the end of 2022 to provide approximately 35,000 hot meals to people who were unemployed.

Kimberly Gambino, president and pastor of Helping Hand Rescue Mission in Huntington Station, said the Palacios’ organization is more than a charity. “It’s a movement of love, advocacy and action that reminds us all what it means to be good neighbors,” she said.