The Town of North Hempstead recognized African-Americans who had made a marked improvement on their communities, at the recent Black History Month celebrations at the “Yes We Can” Community Center in Westbury.
Themed “Black Excellence,” the event celebrated African-American entrepreneurs, with members of the town board choosing residents from their district to honor. Councilwoman Anna Kaplan’s honoree was Adrienne Vaultz, vice president of operations and finance for an IT recruiting firm. Vaultz, whose parents were from Selma, AL, learned at a young age the importance of education and to excel at all she did. As she got older, she learned that not everyone had the same familial support or opportunities that she did, which contributed towards her passion for encouraging youth. She has been part of many organizations that share a similar goal. In the 1980s, she started the Focus! Youth Organization, and she also serves as a youth leader at First Baptist Church of Great Neck and vice chairman of the Manhasset Great Neck EOC.
Councilman Peter Zuckerman’s honoree was Rev. Monte Malik Chandler, the senior pastor of Assembly of Prayer Baptist Churches of Metro New York, as well as the board of trustees for the Flemister House in New York City. The St. Anthony’s High School alum studied philosophy and played Division 1-AA football at the College of the Holy Cross, before going on to Rutgers University School of Law in New York and serving as assistant district attorney at the Kings County District Attorney’s Office. In 1997, he committed to ministry and attended Union Theological Seminary.
Also receiving honors were Betty and Bernard Hardy, Dr. Leon Mullen, Leonard “Sparrow” Llewellyn, Timothy Thurmond, Kenneth Gray and Lynette Batts.
The Feb. 8 event included refreshments from LL Dent, music and performances by Nori Rane, the “Yes We Can Community Band,” LND Dance Company, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, SUNY Old Westbury’s Step Tunes and children from the “Yes We Can” Community Center.
The Town of North Hempstead also partnered with Bethpage FCU and the National Coalition of 100 Black Women Inc., Long Island Chapter to provide five scholarships to Hofstra University’s Entrepreneurial Assistance Program.
“Black History Month is a wonderful opportunity for all of us to learn about and celebrate accomplishments of the culture,” said Supervisor Judi Bosworth. “This year’s theme of Black Excellence allows us to highlight and honor the influential entrepreneurs and business people in our community and recognize them for the major contributions they have made to our community and town.”
“This annual celebration of Black history is even more important this year as we reflect on Black Excellence and pay homage to Black Wall Street. Success and Black Excellence is an existing state of affairs yet often overlooked,” said Councilwoman Viviana Russell. “This year’s honorees are true examples of Black Excellence and their incredible contributions to our community make them very deserving honorees. Their success is our success.”
I think maybe your next article mentioning Flemister House and it’s Board Members should mention the following details so that potential residents should know about so they can be aware of what they are getting into if they move here.
This is just a residence facility with an onsite “Case Worker” who we only see once a month, they basically only do room inspections. We only see the “office workers” at most for a 5 minute meeting to update file information and then a 5 second room inspection each month.
Several of the Apts have water damage (Ceilings, walls, and floors) some of which was been waiting for repairs since the building flooded during hurricane Sandy in 2012. And Still waiting.
There is a “meal service” provided by the “Flemister Kitchen” which does NOT PREPARE ANY MEALS themselves, but does place an order to have a pre-made and pre-packaged dinners delivered each day from an outside vendor. ONLY One Meal a day and the portion is so small that it would not even satisfy a child’s appetite. This meal is also not appropriate for any of the special diets that a large percentage of the residents here are prescribed by their doctors (low sodium, food allergies, low carb, and vegetarian diets are not offered). There is a “diabetic” meal delivered but it is the exact same meal as the non diabetic meal just smaller portions. For example one of the frequently served “diabetic” meals provided consist of ½ cup of High CARB / Starch sweet potatoes, ½ a cup of HIGH CARB / Starch peas, and 3 ounces of HIGH CARB / Starch vegetarian lasagna (PASTA with small amount of sauce and sometimes cheese). Not sure what makes that “diabetic” since there is little or no protein and every item on the plate is HIGH CARB Starches. Since the diabetic plate is consistently carb heavy (starchy vegetables like potatoes, rice, beans, and sides like pasta) the only difference from the “Regular” meal is that the “diabetic” plate is half the portion size of the regular plates. To me this is more of an insult to the diabetics because they seem to be ignoring the No / Lower Carbs Diet that is prescribed by my doctors and instead just serving less food, implying that residents like myself, the diabetic fatty’s, should just eat less, and stop being fat to make the diabetes go away. Complaints and suggestions seem to have no results and this has been an ongoing issue since I moved here 5 years ago. I also know a few residents who were Highly Allergic to Fish which they serve twice a week with no alternatives.
Aside from the Flemister Kitchen which only serves 1 meal a day, Dinner, there are Communal Kitchens that are for the residents who can prepare their own meals are located on each floor of the building. However the majority of these have gone with out ANY maintenance or repairs in decades and are not functioning or barely functioning for some floors. The one on my floor had an accidental fire back in 2014 that cause damage to the stove, refrigerator, and destroyed most of the cabinets and shelves, as well as leaving the ceiling and walls grey / black with smoke stains. They replaced the fridge and stove but have not done ANYTHING about repair / replacing the cabinets, walls or ceiling. There is no where to store anything other than inside the fridge and the stove top resulting in both the fridge and stove being packed full of residents items that would have to be moved before anyone else can use them. 12 apts on this floor and the kitchen is practically unusable and we are not allowed to use the kitchen areas from other floors. As a result this has become just a storage area for the residents who have to sneak microwaves, hotplates and small convectional ovens into their rooms in order to get a hot meal. The “Office” refuses to help with the situation since the damage was the fault of a specific resident who was told that the cost to fix everything would be his responsibility and they would not repair anything until he paid them. That might be considered a reasonable response except for the fact the resident in question passed away about a year ago and they still refuse to fix any of the damage. Are they expecting the dead man to pay them from the grave? Or are they expecting the other residents to pay for building repairs out of their own pockets from the SSI, SSD, or HASA money they live on? Or is it that they just don’t care if we eat?
Any Official Grievance about ANY issue that Residents provided to the “Office” in writing as per their Grievance policy typically gets “lost” several times and has to be constantly resubmitted OR the residents are delivered a letter response saying that whatever the issue was that it is a “resident issue” and up to the “resident” to resolve themselves, OR there is no response at all.
Flemister House Resident