‘It takes a village’

Eileen Howell hung up the phone three times before SUNation Solar Systems’ CEO Scott Maskin got through to her. “Please don’t hang up,” he pleaded on the fourth call.

This was not a typical solar panel solicitation. Maskin wanted to donate one of his solar panel roofs to Howell, whose family is still recovering from the loss of husband and father to three children, Marine Sgt. Thomas Howell. While suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Sgt. Howell took his own life last February, at age 34.

Howell stood with her sons, Thomas, 10 Charlie, 6, and Liam, 3, on Nov. 18, and offered a tearful thanks to a crowd of roughly two dozen friends, family and community members, who gathered next to her Oceanside home on Windsor Parkway for a christening of the new roof.

The panels had been working since Veterans Day — just four weeks after the phone call — and according to Maskin, Howell would “never have to pay another electric bill in her life.”

Sgt. Howell served in the military for 11 years, and returned home from a 10-month deployment to Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan in July 2015. During that final tour, students at Oceanside’s School No. 4 tracked his whereabouts and sent letters to the sergeant’s squad. Members of Tommy’s class even created a “Welcome Home” banner for their classmate’s father. But, about six months later, the sergeant was dead.

Maskin heard about the family’s tragic story on Facebook while seeking submissions for candidates to receive a free promotional Veterans Day panel installation. Long Island Rail Road workers Bill Saar and Tom Kowalski, who worked with Sgt. Howell after his retirement from the military, wrote the note that caught Maskin’s attention. “We wrote what we felt,” said Saar. “Even after [his] death, the family is still in need.”

Many others showed their support, both online and in person. In March, only weeks after the sergeant’s death, friends and family raised more than $45,000 through Youcaring.com, a crowd-funding website.

During the installation event, 10 members of the Patriot Guard Riders organization — a group formed in 2005 to non-violently block protesters from interrupting military funerals and to ensure that no military burial goes unattended — arrived with their motorcycles to show support. Howell’s three boys appeared to enjoy the men’s colorful bikes and played on them during the ceremony.

A number of elected officials spoke at the event, including U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin and Town of Islip Councilwoman Trish Bergin Weichbrodt, as well as State Sens. Tom Croci and Todd Kaminsky.

“The Howell family have sacrificed so much for this country,” Kaminsky said, “and there’s a debt to them that can never be fully repaid.” He implored members of the community to do everything they can to show solidarity with the family.

Howell, who works at the New York City Police Academy, was extremely appreciative of all the support she and her boys received from the community. She claimed that moving to Oceanside four years ago was likely one of the best decisions she’s ever made, especially in the wake of such a tragedy. “As they say, it takes a village to raise a family,” she said. “And this truly is a village.”