Inwood resident Sasha Young is the gift that keeps on giving

Sasha is the biggest thing to happen to this community in a long time. I no longer pray for her, I pray to her. She’s a saint.”

Pete Sobol

Sasha Young, of Inwood, created Gammy’s Pantry over two years ago, inspired by her grandmother Betty Young, whom she called Gammy. From a small space inside the Five Towns Community Center in Lawrence, which offered food to those who needed it, Young expanded the pantry to include clothes in 2019.

When the coronavirus pandemic struck, she ramped up the pantry’s operations, and it became part of a Long Island Cares site that now distributes even more food to people victimized by the economic downturn.

Along the way, Young has inspired and mobilized a group of roughly 30 teenage volunteers to help her manage the philanthropic activities at the community center. They have created a community garden, and advocated for the Nassau County Police Department to re-establish Police Athletic League programs at the center.

For these and many other volunteer endeavors, the Herald is proud to name Young its 2020 Person of the Year.

A native of Martinsburg, W.Va., Young, 43, grew up with a strong sense of what is important in life. Her family included educators, high school principals and employees of the DuPont chemical company. “I learned to be responsible, respectful, to leave someplace better than you found it,” she said.

Young learned a particularly valuable lesson in elementary school. When she was in third grade, her teacher took her and some other children to a homeless shelter. “A good friend of mine lived in the shelter, and I didn’t know he had a whole different life,” she recalled. “It was an eye-opener.”

After her parents separated, Young said, Gammy helped raise her, and instilled in her the values she still holds dear. “Just the way she lived every day — she always looked for the good in everyone, and treated everyone the same,” Young said. “She took care of every little thing on the property, and you couldn’t kill an ant.” Betty Young died on Christmas Day 2018.

Sasha, who has a degree in psychology from American Public University, an online institution headquartered in Charles Town, W.Va., moved to New York in 1995. She and her partner, Robert Acosta, have three daughters: Genesis Acosta, 26, who was adopted, and twins Alexandra and Alexis Acosta, 15, who are sophomores at Lawrence High School.

The pantry grew from a toy collection for families in need that Young and another parent, Dan Segarra, began at the Number Two School about eight years ago. Nerthi Sanchez, who runs the Middle School Program at the community center, has seen Young in action for the past five years. “All of her endeavors stem from a deep-rooted love for God and mankind,” Sanchez said, noting Young’s grandmother’s influence on her — and emphasizing that all of this is volunteer work. “The pandemic hit hard, [exacerbating] food insecurities throughout this and other communities across our great nation,” Sanchez said. “She instinctively sprang into action, combating food insecurities at a higher level.”

In 2020, Young collaborated with local organizations such as the Cedarhurst-based Rock and Wrap It Up!, run by Syd Mandelbaum, Five Towns stores such as Trader Joe’s and Wall’s Bakery and others, and food poured into the community center. In June, Gammy’s Pantry joined forces with Long Island Cares, the Freeport-based hunger assistance organization.

The need was obvious, and the numbers are sobering. In November, the Long Island Cares site at the community center served 1,467 adults, 2,643 children and 268 seniors, according to the figures that are required to be reported to Long Island Cares. The site is open to anyone in the Town of Hempstead. Many of those who use it are from the Five Towns and Valley Stream. Young said that Gammy’s Pantry serves up to 150 people at a time and collects food for many more at home.

It’s shocking — it hit everyone,” she said of the pandemic. “No matter if you live in a huge house or drive a fancy car. By the second week there was no job; by the third week, no car. It’s a horrendous crisis.”

Young was furloughed from her job as an aide in the Lawrence School District in April. Called to return in September, she said her work at the community center was more of a priority.

In addition to providing food and clothes for those in need, she and her army of teen volunteers organized an outdoor Easter party, and a Halloween party at which children trick-or-treated, this year. The lighting of a Christmas tree and a menorah outside the community center have become annual traditions.

The facility’s executive director for just over a year, K. Brent Hill, has worked with Young to strengthen the relationship between the center and Gammy’s Pantry. He obtained two grants totaling $40,000 that helped purchase needed supplies, including a refrigerator for the pantry.

“I think Sasha has great attributes, and really motivates people,” Hill said. “Her spirit is so giving that people want to join in the efforts. She connects with people regardless of their background. She’s the gift that keeps on giving. She gets young people involved, older people involved and gets people who have received food motivated that they want to help, too.”

Young also helped save a life this year. On Oct. 7, she and a few of the teen volunteers came to the aid of a woman who regularly comes for food at Gammy’s Pantry and Long Island Cares. The woman was outside the Community Center and was unable to speak, and then fell into unconsciousness, apparently having a heart attack.

Young, who is certified in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, began administering it before emergency responders arrived, and Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Department medics revived the woman with a defibrillator. She survived. “It was teamwork in its finest,” Young said. “It’s always how the dream works, but this time it saved a life.”

She could just as well have been describing her volunteer work. “Sasha is the biggest thing to happen to this community in a long time,” said Pete Sobol, who has been involved with the community center for 25 years, serving as interim executive director, board president and trustee said. “I no longer pray for her; I pray to her. She’s a saint.”