By Kristy O’Connell
Great Neck has a big presence on the Town of North Hempstead’s 24th annual May W. Newburger Women’s Roll of Honor — five of the 16 women being honored are from the peninsula.
Barbara Berkowitz, Rita Hall, Ester Hakimian, Leila Mattson and Mindy Rosenfeld will be recognized for their community service efforts Wednesday at the Clubhouse at Harbor Links in Port Washington.
“Every good deed counts,” Rosenfeld said. “Even small acts of kindness can change the world.”
Berkowitz has been a member of the Great Neck school board for 25 years and currently serves as president.
Before becoming a school board trustee, she was active in the school community as the co-chairperson of the United Parent-Teacher Council Budget Committee and as a delegate to the committee.
Berkowitz is also the founder of Good Ideas for Teens, or GIFT, a community committee that explores activities and sites for teen functions in Great Neck.
Hakimian began her career in volunteering in 1970, when she served in Hamburg, Germany, as a member of the Women’s International Zionist Organization, also known as WIZO.
There, she helped organize the WIZO bazaar, transporting elderly community members to and from the synagogue and WIZO events. She regularly participated in fundraisers and visited elderly and ill community members in the hospital to provide companionship.
Hakimian moved to New York in 1987 and has been volunteering ever since, she said. She regularly visits the Highfield Gardens Rehab facility to provide companionship for the elderly and offers them weekly exercise classes.
Hall was nominated for her involvement with Reach Out America, a political advocacy group that Hall leads as president.
Reach Out America works to educate local residents about religious tolerance, health care, environment and peace.
Hall said she attributes her love for Reach Out America to her great respect for the protection of the First Amendment. She said her parents fled Europe to escape religious persecution.
“To me, there is nothing more important for a free society than free speech, free religion,” she said. “It’s important to defend it.”
Hall is also a volunteer at Womanspace, a social service organization in Thomaston, and sits on the North Shore Community Arts Board assisting with event planning and fundraising.
Mattson, the historian of the Great Neck Historical Society, is being recognized for her contributions to maintaining the history of the Great Neck community.
Mattson served for 36 years as a reference librarian at the Great Neck Library and is the co-author of “Images of America: Great Neck.”
She, along with the president of the Historical Society board, Alice Kasten, used photos from the Great Neck Library and Kasten’s historic postcard collection to develop the book.
“It’s wonderful to be honored for something you really enjoy doing,” she said.
During her time as historian of the Historical Society, she has helped to organize several events, given talks on the history of Great Neck and has co-written several articles for the Great Neck News.
Rosenfeld, a Great Neck resident for 22 years, said she attributes her nomination to her quiet acts of kindness, saying her parents raised her to see the power in small acts of kindness.
While she coordinates fundraisers for the Great Neck Breast Cancer Coalition and has volunteered consistently as a class parent when her children were younger, Rosenfeld said she is especially proud of serving as a helpful hand to her elderly neighbors and a shoulder to lean on for members of the community.
She said she is especially grateful to her elderly neighbors for sharing their life stories, inspiring her and enriching her life.
