At every age, Marsha Elowsky finds purpose all around her

Marsha Elowsky knows her purpose.

The Plainview resident, 89, has dedicated most of her adult life to helping her community, including by coordinating the painting of wooden toys for children in need and collecting food nearing its expiration dates from supermarkets for donation to local pantries.

Most recently, Elowsky has been encouraging seniors in her community to express their feelings through a biweekly therapy group she created called Super Seniors.

“When you’re a great-grandparent, you can really lose your purpose,” Elowsky said. “When you’re younger, your purpose is to get a job, earn a living, raise a family, take care of your children — you have so many purposes and are so necessary. [When you are older] you have to create a need for yourself, so I created a need for me. Your purpose could even be being the fifth at mah-jongg.”

Elowsky, who is certified in special education, started her career working with the New York City Department of Education in 1956 and shortly after relocated to Virginia with her late husband, Joseph, during his enlistment in the Army. The couple returned to New York several years later to raise their family on Long Island, with Elowsky serving as president of three PTAs in the Plainview area as her four children progressed through the local school system, she said.

During that time, Elowsky started a preschool out of her home that prepared children for kindergarten by teaching social skills and various subjects twice a week — an endeavor that lasted for 25 years. She also created a nonprofit summer camp called Camp Apollo, which operated out of a local school and offered activities ranging from roller skating to attending baseball games for kids in Plainview.

The six-week camp, which she created in 1970, accommodated as many as 800 students in its heyday until it closed during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, according to its former director, George Rosenbaum.

“She is an extremely creative person,” Rosenbaum, 81, said of Elowsky. “When she takes something on, she takes it on 110%.”

Elowsky’s other volunteer efforts have included transporting seniors to and from medical appointments, painting rocks for people to place on local graves as a sign of remembrance and serving as president of a local chapter of the nonprofit B’nai B’rith Women.

One woman Elowsky recently took to a medical appointment after her car suddenly died was Plainview resident Esther Elitsur, 76, who is also part of a group that paints toys for children in need with Elowsky.

“She said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll take you,’ ” Elitsur recalled. “If somebody ever needs something, Marsha will be there.”

By Michael R. Ebert

michael.ebert@newsday.com

Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.