New civic group formed

Nearly 50 people attended the first meeting of the Hewlett Woodmere Civic Association on Sunday night, shocking the organization’s founder, 20-year-old Woodmere resident Jeremy Rosenberg.

“It went better than expected,” he said. “I wouldn’t have expected 50 people, and they came with genuine interest. It was uplifting and a positive first step.”

Rosenberg, a 2010 Hewlett High School graduate and a junior at George Washington University, decided to establish the civic association in January in an effort, he said, to bring more vitality to the area, encourage local commerce and unite the two communities.

In high school, Rosenberg was vice president of the Multicultural Club. At GWU he is the political director of GreenGW, a campus sustainability club, and a member of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity. “Many of my fraternity brothers have encouraged me to pursue the civic association and public service,” he said. “Most of my desire for public service came to fruition in college, where I have used my student organizations and fraternity as vehicles of change and community service.”

The civic association held its first meeting at Dance Express in Woodmere, and it began with an introduction from Rosenberg and Michael Turi, who will help run the organization when Rosenberg is away at school in Washington, D.C., where he is studying international affairs.

Turi, a 1995 Lawrence High School graduate, met Rosenberg through mutual friends and wanted to become involved in the civic association. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and earned a master’s in public administration from New York University before going to work for the Nassau County Board of Elections as a voter education and outreach coordinator in the Help American Vote Act department.

The group wants to serve as an independent, nonpartisan forum where residents and business owners can meet and share their concerns and desires for the community, said Turi, who hopes to collaborate with various community organizations. “By working together and finding where our different interests intersect, we can hopefully join forces and have a greater impact on our community,” he said.

Attendees asked questions and discussed issues such as the vacant stores along Broadway in Hewlett and Woodmere, and trash pickup. “People wanted to volunteer, talk about the issues and spend the time and effort beautifying the area,” Rosenberg said. “We talked about possibly displaying artwork in vacant stores, and people loved the idea and were excited. It’s an improvement from what I’ve seen in the community in the last few years.”

John Roblin, president of the Hewlett-Woodmere Public Schools Endowment Fund, attended the meeting because, he said, it is important for leaders of various community groups to work together to improve the area. “It sounds like the Hewlett Woodmere Civic Association will be actively reaching into the community to find out more about what people are looking for from their organization,” Roblin said. “As long as we keep working together and share our information on what the community wants and needs, we can continue to serve Hewlett and Woodmere.”

Roblin, who helped organize Hewlett-Woodmere’s first Arts Below Sunrise event, a music and arts festival in October, announced at the meeting that Arts Below Sunrise 2 would take place on Sept. 29. “Though we haven’t had a meeting specific to Arts Below Sunrise 2 yet, we only set the date last week,” he said. “Sometime within the next few weeks we will have a meeting with everyone involved from last year to evaluate what we think worked, what needs to be worked on, and what we might add for this year. Someone from the civic association will certainly be invited.”

Rosenberg said the best question he was asked at the inaugural meeting was, “When is the next meeting?” “My friends from school are in Florida on spring break,” he said, “and to be honest, I was wondering if I would feel upset that I spent my break at the civic association meeting if it didn’t go well, but I was honored that people came out with such enthusiasm. There was genuine excitement, passion and interest, and it elevated the level of conversation and got people thinking. I’m excited for the next one.”

Though a date has not yet been set for the next meeting, Rosenberg and Turi have begun generating ideas for events they believe the community would enjoy. “I’m thinking about having a small-business showcase so people can see that they’re not just a business, but that there’s a family behind it,” Rosenberg said. “It’s about protecting Mom-and-Pop shops, because there are so many businesses and families at stake who rely on patronage.”

Turi, who said he was pleasantly surprised by the overflow crowd at Sunday’s meeting, hopes to host regular meetings on topics of interests and address important issues. “We didn’t know exactly how many people were planning on attending, and it was wonderful to have so many engaged and interested people,” he said. “I hope that our civic association can engage young people in the Five Towns to be more active in their community.”