For Immediate Release Media Contacts: Collin Nash and Sid Nathan
November 17, 2011 (516) 869-7794
Town, Great Neck School District Unveil North Hempstead Day Quilt
Great Neck, NY— Supervisor Jon Kaiman and a number of Town elected officials, Maria-Christina Poons, and Great Neck Superintendent Dr. Thomas P. Dolan recently joined students from Great Neck’s E.M. Baker School to unveil a quilt symbolizing North Hempstead’s increasing diversity as well as the Town’s independence from the Town of Hempstead.
“The history of our Town is very important but the future is just as important because you are our future,” Supervisor Kaiman told the group of fifth-graders. “As North Hempstead’s future leaders, you must place a high value on the importance of diversity if North Hempstead is to continue thriving.”
In addition to Supervisor Kaiman, elected officials attending the mid-morning assembly at E.M. Baker School included Town Clerk Leslie Gross, Councilwoman Maria-Christina Poons, and Councilwoman Lee Seeman.
The quilt was made up of scores of squares that each student designed to represent various aspects of the Town’s history that they learned about on North Hempstead Day.
Tracing North Hempstead’s secession from the Town of Hempstead on September 23, 1775, North Hempstead Day is held each year in Mary Jane Davies Park where Supervisor Kaiman and members of the Town Board play the roles of key figures of the era when North Hempstead gained its independence.
As history tells it, a group of patriots living in the northern section of the town gathered in Cow Neck—modern day Port Washington—and declared their allegiance to the revolutionary cause by formally separating from the Town of Hempstead, which was predominantly loyal to England.
Great Neck Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Thomas P. Dolan, E. M. Baker Principal Sharon Fougner and Assistant Principal Jeffrey Ryvicker also were on hand to help celebrate the unveiling of the quilt.
Supervisor Kaiman (right) along with Great Neck Superintendent Dr. Thomas P. Dolan, North Hempstead elected officials, school administrators and students gather to unveil the North Hempstead Day quilt.