Dix Hills veteran honored by Suffolk Legislature

Sonya Weisbrot’s decades of service have taken her from A-4 jets to fostering pets.

The Dix Hills resident, who enlisted in the Navy after graduating high school in 1985, spent five years stationed in countries as far away as the Philippines, where she held the position of Navy plane captain at the U.S. Naval Air Station Cubi Point, she said.

Today, Weisbrot, 58, volunteers by caring for animals awaiting adoption at Little Shelter Animal Rescue & Adoption Center in Huntington. She also cares for injured wildlife at the Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center in Hampton Bays. Both organizations are nonprofits.

She was recently named 2025 Suffolk County Woman Veteran of the Year in the district represented by Suffolk County Legis. Tom Donnelly (D-Deer Park).

“It’s just my thing; I’ve always been that way,” Weisbrot said of her life of service. “Ever since I was kid I liked helping people, whether it was my grandmother pulling weeds or whatever it was.”

Weisbrot was tasked with the maintenance, inspection and preparation of A-4 jets in the Navy, and during her service visited countries including Guam and Thailand before switching gears and driving a 10-ton fuel truck for military aircraft in Hawaii, she said. Upon completing her service in 1990, she worked as an assistant for theater and dance photographer Martha Swope and later joined the staff at K&M Camera in Manhattan.

She said she began volunteering after her son, Raymond, graduated high school in 2017. Her recent volunteer work with the rescues has included promoting the importance of animal adoptions during a visit to Half Hollow Hills High School West in Dix Hills and using her backyard to raise four juvenile squirrels that lost their mother, she said.

She also volunteers at the Town of Huntington Cat Shelter, which is run by Little Shelter.

“I just love animals so much,” said Weisbrot, who has five cats, a dog, a pigeon and a koi pond with 30 fish. “If they don’t have a home, we at least try to make it nice for them at the shelter.”

Little Shelter’s volunteer coordinator Anna Maass praised Weisbrot for everything from having adopted a dog with inflammatory bowel disease and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency to helping transport puppies to an annual adoption event called Broadway Barks in Manhattan.

“Sonya’s been a loyal volunteer and I can always count on her to help out,” Maass said. “Her heart is with the animals.”

Donnelly said Weisbrot’s dedication to the community is “deserving of recognition.”

“From the flight line to animal rescue, she continues to demonstrate compassion, leadership and commitment in every chapter of her life,” Donnelly said in a statement.

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.