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Massapequas Town Focus

Ashley Wade was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease during her senior year at Portledge School in Locust Valley, and spent the last month of 2011 fighting the ailment at Winthrop-University Hospital, unable to get out of bed. 
At the height of the holiday season, Wade, who was 17 at the time, received a gingerbread house as a gift from an unknown hospital donor. It was a surprise that changed her life. 
“I was so sick at the time. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t get out of bed. But the gingerbread house helped me keep my mind off it,” said Wade, of Massapequa Park. “When you’re that sick, anything that can take your mind off your illness really makes a difference.” 
Inspired by the kindness of her anonymous gift-giver, and using money out of her college fund, Wade started the Ashley Wade Foundation, an organization dedicated to by providing toys, support and comfort for children with chronic illnesses and their families. 
Wade’s efforts started out small. She sent care packages, held craft events and threw pizza parties for children staying at Winthrop-University Hospital. Then word started to spread. 
“Pretty soon, we had families reaching out to me, asking to deliver care packages to their children at home,” Wade said. “Everything just sort of took off from there.” 
Since starting the foundation, she has sent “hundreds” of baskets and raised a little more than $6,000 at the foundation’s inaugural fundraiser last year. She plans another fundraiser on Oct. 26 at The Milleridge Inn in Jericho. 
At its core, the foundation serves kids and their families in its “Superstars” program. In 2012, it had three participating families, who come together for fun nights and special care packages delivered on Christmas and birthdays. It has grown to include 41 families, with the addition of its newest family earlier this month. 
Wade, now 21, remains hands-on with the foundation, spending her weekends and free time coordinating events, visiting children and personally delivering care packages to families. 
It’s a big responsibility for Wade, who is also working on a degree in psychology at NYIT in Old Westbury and has a part-time job as a soccer coach at Portledge School. She also takes time to fight her own battle against Crohn’s, going for routine infusion treatment every six weeks. 
“It’s definitely a sacrifice,” Wade said of her busy schedule. “But when you’re there, and you see a kid smile and finally be able to relax, and their parents finally able to unwind, even for awhile, it makes it all worth it.” 
Wade also has a team of supporters and the help of her co-president and close friend Alexandra Riebl, 21, of Massapequa Park. 
And she drums up support through the foundation’s website and Facebook page, through which a network of local community members donate toys, goods and even event space to keep Wade’s dream alive. 
“I’ll post in the Facebook group that I’m looking for a specific toy, or a pillow or blanket to put in a care package for a child, and within minutes I’ll have someone respond willing to find it and pick it up for me,” Wade said. “Without this support, none of this would be possible.” 
This summer, Wade spent several days a week visiting 5-year-old Nicolas Colucci, of Babylon, who was diagnosed with pediatric cancer in May. Colucci underwent stomach surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan earlier this year and was declared cancer-free at the end of August. 
“Ashley gave him a Ninja Turtle pillow to hold on to as he recovered from his surgery. He wouldn’t let go of it the entire time,” said Nicholas’ mother, Tara Colucci. “I still speak to her all the time. I feel like out of a bad situation, we made a lifelong friend.” 
On Aug. 26, Wade was hosting a family day pizza party for members of the foundation when she learned that she won the $10,000 “Be the Change” award from the Sheckler Foundation, a charity founded by professional skateboarder Ryan Sheckler. Wade said she intends to use the money to continue funding care packages and events, as well as launch a new program later this year. 
“We want to create a space for kids with illnesses and their families to come together, where they can feel at ease, “ Wade said. “Dealing with illness can be hard, and we want children to understand that there are people who understand what the are going through, and that they’re not alone.”

LIer spreads cheer with baskets for ill kids

LI woman dips into college fund to spread cheer to ill children

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When Massapequa resident Dawn Boyle Kostakis created the “Massapequa Moms Group” on Facebook in 2011, it was comprised of only a few close friends. 
“It was to send each other fake Tupperware invites, so we could go out at night,” said Boyle Kostakis, 43, a mother of two. 
But in March 2012, a tragic event prompted Boyle Kostakis to expand her circle of Facebook friends. Another Massapequa mother and friend, Ellen Meany, 45, was fatally injured when she was hit by a car while cycling in the neighborhood. The driver left the scene. 
So Boyle Kostakis posted a photo of the suspect’s vehicle to her group, and as the image circulated through the social network, requests from other local moms wanting to join poured in. 
Then, months later, when superstorm Sandy pummeled the Massapequas, an even larger surge of requests came in as the group became, for many, the best way to share information and coordinate relief efforts. 
“It became a lifeline,” she said. 
Now, 6,698 members strong — as of Monday morning — and still growing, the Massapequa Moms Group has become a force to be reckoned with. Together, the members have raised tens of thousands of dollars to help local charities and individual families in need. 
In January, their second annual Rock the Riv party drew more than 200 attendees and brought in $4,000, which they donated to the family of a Massapequa mom who died earlier that month. 
“We rally,” Boyle Kostakis said. “That’s what Massapequa does.” 
And when the group learned another local mother was about to have her leg amputated, they quickly pulled together a school supplies drive to get her child outfitted for the school year. 
“The outpouring was insane,” she added. 
A sister Facebook page called Massapequa Mommas Market also serves as a sort of digital yard sale for local residents to buy, sell or donate gently used children’s clothes, toys, home goods and other products. 
“I’ve had a mom tell me, ‘If it wasn’t for this page, I’d have to leave my children to go work somewhere part time,’” said Laura Pelly, who administers the group with Danielle Marotti, a fellow Massapequa resident still displaced from her home because of Sandy. 
Over the years, Boyle Kostakis said she’s been approached by “consultants” wanting to monetize her group or sell Massapequa Moms-branded merchandise and wine, but she has turned them away. 
The group is also a place for moms to ask for advice and recommendations, sound off on local issues (or complain about the ugly camel crickets infiltrating their homes), and share other information. Sure, there’s the occasional bickering. But right now, there is a prayer chain taking place for a local family. 
“Massapequa Moms is all about getting together and serving our community more powerfully,” said Eileen Healy-Minogue, who uses the group to advance the charity work she does. 
Pelly said there was no resource like the moms group when she was raising her kids. 
“We brought our kids up with an isolation that you ladies will never have to experience,” she said. “Social media can take a nasty turn, but you really have a connection here that’s endearing and empowering.”

Nearly 7,000 members makes Moms Facebook group a force

Massapequa moms turn to Facebook to rally community

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When the sun went down on Massapequa’s Peninsula Golf Club, the nine-hole, 57-acre course became a playground for the famous Baldwin brothers. 
It was the 1970s, and the now-famous Baldwin brothers — Alec, Daniel, Billy, and Stephen — were just boys being boys. 
Their home was close to the fairway, and “everything happened on that golf course,” Billy Baldwin said Thursday during a phone interview, from his first pickup baseball and football games to his first snowball fight and his first cigarette. 
Baldwin, now 51, recalled playing “Army” with his brothers in the dunes. They would split into two teams, create “bunkers” and fire off bottle rockets and Roman candles at one another. 
As teens, they’d go there with about 30 friends — boys and girls — to saturate the golf course with water, strip down to their underwear and play on what Baldwin called “the most awesome slip-and-slide.” 
“You ran as fast as you can, dove on the wet green and slid 150 feet downhill,” he said. “People would be laughing so hard they were crying.” 
Baldwin now lives in California with his wife, singer Chynna Phillips, and their three children. But he said he still keeps in touch with some of his Massapequa friends, and not just to recall their high jinks. In 2001, they formed the Massapequa Community Fund as a way to give back. 
Through fundraising events and individual donations — Baldwin said brother Alec has been a big contributor — MCF provides college scholarships to Massapequa High School students, financial support to local families who are struggling and grants to community groups, including the YES Community Counseling Center. 
For the past five years, the fund has also provided $35,000 to the Massapequa School District to offset the costs of sending about a dozen teachers and administrators to Harvard University for a weeklong intensive education program called Project Zero. 
Baldwin said Massapequa is one of only two public schools in the country that send educators to the course. The other one is in Montecito, California, where his children attend school and how he first learned about the program. 
During one of the trips he makes to Long Island during the course of a year, Baldwin will usually arrange a meeting with the Massapequa teachers to hear their feedback about the program. 
“The teachers rave about, it reinvigorates them,” he said. “They are rubbing elbows with the best and the brightest.” 
Baldwin said he’s proud to be a product of public education — from Massapequa’s Unqua and McKenna elementary schools to Berner High School (now a middle school) and then SUNY Binghamton. His father, the late Alex Baldwin, also taught at Massapequa High School, and the school’s auditorium was later named after him when his children donated the money to renovate it in the late 1990s. 
Growing up in Massapequa, Billy Baldwin also had fond memories of fast food from All-American Hamburger Drive-in and homemade ice cream from Krisch’s, both of which are still around today. 
And his favorite watering hole was Fox’s, which sadly — like his childhood home — no longer exists. 
“That house probably should have been torn down when we moved in,” he joked. 
He added that he “had a blast” the six summers he worked as a lifeguard at Tobay Beach. Sometimes, he would even hitchhike there. 
“It was a lot of fun,” he said of his Massapequa memories. “You can’t do that stuff anymore.”

Billy shares Baldwins' Massapequa mischief

Billy Baldwin’s Massapequa memories: From golf course slip-and-slides to giving back

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Life seemed to just be beginning for Massapequa Park resident Melissa Pascuma-Gangi 13 years ago. 
She was 23 years old, engaged with her wedding date 10 months away and only four days into her teaching career on Sept. 11, 2001, when she received news that shattered her world. 
Her father, Michael Pascuma Jr., was trapped in the North Tower of the World Trade Center. He had been having breakfast at Windows on the World, his Tuesday ritual, before heading to work at the New York Stock Exchange. 
Pascuma-Gangi said her brother had spoken with their father briefly over the phone. He said, “There’s a fire. I’m trying to get out. I have to go.” That was the last time the family heard from him. 
“It’s very hard for me to talk about my dad without getting emotional even on a daily basis with my kids,” said Pascuma-Gangi, who is now 36 and has two daughters. “Thirteen years later, it’s still hard.” 
Pascuma-Gangi did speak about her father publicly Tuesday night at the Town of Oyster Bay’s Sept. 11 memorial ceremony at Tobay Beach in Massapequa. About 150 people attended the service near the town’s 9/11 memorial, which features a piece of steel recovered from Ground Zero and a wall containing the names of town residents killed in the attacks. 
The ceremony included prayers, music, a candlelight vigil and a reading of the 90 names. Afterward, Town Supervisor John Venditto opened up the microphone to anyone in the crowd who wished to speak. 
“As a teacher and mom, I hold it in almost every single day of the year, you have to to get through your life,” she said. “But this is the one opportunity I give myself to write something down and not hold everything in.” 
Pascuma-Gangi’s oldest daughter, Madison, 9, also shared a poem she wrote to her mother last year on the 12th anniversary of the attacks. It concluded with the words: “Don’t be sad, he’s always watching you.” 
Donna Hickey, the widow of FDNY captain Brian Christopher Hickey, also spoke to the crowd. 
In the last 13 years, Hickey, 60, of Bethpage, said she’s lost a child, watched two others get married, and became a grandmother of four without her husband — her “high school sweetheart” -- by her side. Their oldest son, Danny, inspired by his father, has since become a New York City firefighter. 
“There’s a lot of milestones you have to go through without them,” she said. “It’s bittersweet; you hope the day will come when you can be as happy, but I don’t think that’s ever gonna happen.” 
Hickey said she keeps her husband’s memory alive by sharing stories and photos of him with her grandchildren. 
“I’m constantly talking about him all day, every day to whoever wants to listen,” she said. 
She also visits the town’s 9/11 memorial often, finding the setting at the beach very peaceful. 
She said she prefers the town’s intimate Sept. 11 memorial to the one in Manhattan. 
“It makes you feel like you’re not alone, we are like a family,” she said. 
Venditto said the town is committed to holding the ceremony every year for as long as necessary. 
“I’ve learned since Sept. 11,” he said. “Time doesn’t heal all wounds.”

9/11 families find solace at Tobay Beach

Families of 9/11 victims find solace at Tobay Beach

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From atop the platform at the Massapequa Park train station, commuters can take in a breathtaking sight this week, a stark visual reminder of the many lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. 
American flags -- 2,977 of them -- have been carefully “planted” on the lawn outside Massapequa Park Village Hall, each symbolizing one of the victims killed on 9/11. Five larger flags in the center represent five of the village’s own residents who perished that day. 
The display is an annual tradition in Massapequa Park. It started 13 years ago, on the first anniversary of the attacks, said Gail Klubnick, a long-time resident whose family owns Tim’s Florist on Park Boulevard. 
“The first year, we wanted to do something, but we didn’t know what to do; we felt helpless,” Klubnick, 62, said. 
When a friend told her about an impressive flag display a Boston community had created, Klubnick followed their model, and purchased the necessary number of flags. 
“The first year was tough, the ground was like a rock,” she said. “We had to take a drill to drill holes, so it took forever.” 
But she said the effort was all worth it, especially when family members of some of the local victims stopped by. 
It also made an impression on the village’s youngest residents, who were just babies, or not born, when the attacks took place. While helping her staff place the flags one year, Klubnick said a local Boy Scout turned to her and asked, “Why are there so many?” 
When she told him each one represented a life lost, she said he was taken aback. 
“Once you see the enormity of it, it kind of gets to you,” she said. 
After a few years of assisting with the planting of the flags, Boy Scout Troop 660 took over the project. About 20 scouts including some Cub Scouts from Troop 696 spent three hours Saturday morning creating this year’s display. 
“I hope when people see it, it’s easy to recognize the sacrifice that people made and that we still respect that people died that day,” said Troop 660’s Ryan Kaufman, a sophomore at Massapequa High School. 
Kaufman was only 2 years old on Sept 11. 
Massapequa Park Mayor Jeffrey Pravato said the display is an “outstanding tradition” that honors the victims and educates future generations. 
“We can never forget the sacrifices and the pain the country went through that day,” &nbsp;he said. “We have to educate our kids, because we don’t want that to ever happen again.”

2,977 flags symbolize lives lost on 9/11

Scouts honor 9/11 victims with 2,977-flag tribute

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The new owner of Massapequa Perk Coffee House in Massapequa Park doesn’t plan to make big changes to the business he acquired last week. 
“It’s a great little shop,” said Pete Mangouranes, who along with his partners, Veronica Carratelli and Lorenzo Pugliano, officially took over the Front Street store on Sept. 1. “It’s thriving.” 
For Mangouranes, 39, of Massapequa Park, the purchase of the coffee shop was more than a business acquisition. It was personal, an opportunity to keep another man’s legacy alive. 
Mangouranes said he was close with the shop’s original owners, fellow Massapequa Park resident Fortunato "Lucky" DiBenedetto, and his wife, Lisa, who opened the coffee house in August 2008. Mangouranes regularly purchased coffee beans from the couple for the two other eateries he owns in downtown Massapequa Park — Jam and The Good Life. 
DiBenedetto died on April 28, leaving behind two young children, his wife and the couple’s business. Lisa DiBenedetto continued to run the shop after her husband’s death, but ultimately decided she wanted more time with her kids, Mangouranes said. 
After about a month of talks, Mangouranes said he worked out a deal with Lisa DiBenedetto to purchase the shop. 
"One of reasons she actually wanted to sell it to us is because she knew we wouldn’t change it," he said. "This was her husband's passion." 
Mangouranes said he did make DiBenedetto's widow agree to one stipulation, that she would allow him to set up a college fund for her two children that would be funded by a portion of the shop's sales going forward. 
Mangouranes said there are several reasons why Massapequa Perk has been so successful. Its location — directly across from the Massapequa Park Long Island Rail Road station — is key. 
The coffee itself has also earned a loyal following. Mangouranes said they use different beans from around the world and roast them in small batches, so the coffee is always fresh. About 60 percent of customers order just the drip coffee, he said, even though the shop also offers a large selection of flavored lattes — from caramel brûlée to “snowy coconut — and smoothies. On Monday morning, the shop was serving a Peruvian roast. 
He also credited the staff. 
“The staff has personality,” he said. “Jack, who works Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings, is the Bob Ross of coffee beans and his attitude is just infectious; he just wakes you up.” 
Mangouranes said he does plan to make a few tweaks — installing refrigeration behind the counter, so the baristas can be more efficient, and he’s applying for a permit, so he’ll be able to bake some treats in house in addition to the muffins he has delivered from a Brooklyn bakery. 
Other than that, Massapequa Perk will remain true to what the DiBenedetto’s created. That includes the small library of books that customers are allowed to borrow “on the honor system” and return whenever, he said. 
“It’s a personal coffee shop,” Mangouranes said. “I think some of the chains are impersonal, but here, we’re in the business of ‘Hey, how are you?’”

Customer buys coffee shop after owner dies

New owner of Massapequa Perk keeps Lucky’s legacy alive

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What do Jerry Seinfeld, Alec Baldwin and Joey Buttafuoco have in common? 
They've all called the Massapequas home. 
Newsday community journalist Tara Conry is spending five days this week exploring the village of Massapequa Park and the unincorporated areas of the Massapequas for our "Town Focus" series. 
She'll be speaking with local officials, residents and business owners, sharing their stories, and learning about the history of these communities. She will also be visiting some of the area's unique attractions -- from the scenic Massapequa Preserve to the insanely popular All American Hamburger Drive-in. 
Along the way she'll be posting Twitter and Instagram updates. Follow her at @TaraKConry. 
And if you have story ideas or suggestions of places she should visit, email Tara.Conry@newsday.com.

A week in the Massapequas

Town Focus: A week in the Massapequas

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This story&nbsp;originally ran on Feb. 22, 1998 as part of "Long Island: Our Story." 
Beginnings: "Great Water Land" was what the first inhabitants, the Massapequan Indians, called the place. When white settlers arrived, conflict ensued. In 1653, Capt. John Underhill, an Englishman working for the Dutch, led troops in an attack on a peaceful community of Indians at a site believed to be near the intersection of what is now the only Indian "battle" on Long Island. 
Famous Family: Soon after the massacre, a Quaker family from Connecticut, the Townsends, who had been prevented from settling in New Netherlands because of their religion, bought land from the Massapequan sachem, Tackapousha. John Townsend gave the land to his daughter, Freelove, and her husband, Thomas Jones, who were the first white settlers in the area in 1696. Jones and his wife owned 6,000 acres, including, he decided, the sandbar that is now named after him: Jones Beach. Jones had seven children, including David, who in 1770, when he was 71, built Massapequa's first mansion, Tyron Hall, later called Fort Neck House, on what is now Merrick Road between Cartwright Boulevard and Beverly Street. It burned down in the 1930s. Thomas Jones died in 1713 and is buried in the Floyd-Jones Cemetery behind the Old Grace Church on Merrick Road. 
Turning Points: Massapequa served as a resort in the middle years of its history, particularly after the Long Island Rail Road reached the hamlet in 1867. The Vanderwater Hotel, at the corner of Hicksville and Merrick Roads, was built in 1796 and played host to notables including future President Chester A. Arthur and Civil War Gen. Joseph (Fighting Joe) Hooker. In the 1920s, Will Rogers and Annie Oakley rented houses in Masssapequa, around the time that vacant land began to be bought up by developers who turned the area into a suburban residential community. Monkey Business: In 1934, Frank Buck, who collected animals for zoos and circuses, opened Frank Buck's Jungle Camp on land that is now occupied by the Sunrise Mall. It featured lions, elephants, antelopes and a 75-foot-high "monkey mountain" inhabited by 500 rhesus monkeys. The zoo got a lot of publicity when someone left a plank across the moat that surrounded the monkey mountain and 150 of them escaped. 
Claims to Fame: Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush referred to Massapequa as quintessential suburban America. It probably had something to do with the fact that their speech writer, Peggy Noonan, was from Massapequa. So are Alec Baldwin and his actor brothers, as well as Jerry Seinfeld and Ron Kovic, the Vietnam War veteran and peace activist who wrote "Born on the Fourth of July." 
Where to Find More: "Illustrated History of Massapequa," published by the Massapequa Post, at the Massapequa Library.

LI Our Story: Massapequa

After Jones Came, The Beach Got a Name

Thomas Jones: whaler, soldier, privateer

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Town Focus: The Massapequas

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