Baldwin senior not slowing down at 105

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Baldwin resident Ida Scaduto was still making trays of lasagna at 100 — and at 105, she’s still winning at cards and other games on a near daily basis at the Baldwin Senior Center. “She won $3 the other day at Bingo,” Josephine Miller, Scaduto’s daughter, said.

Scaduto, who has lived in Baldwin for about 25 years and has been going to the senior center just as long, celebrated her 105th birthday on Sept. 25. The community celebrated by hosting a party at the center, which was attended by Town Supervisor Laura Gillen and state Sen. Todd Kaminsky.

Miller said her mother has remained active her entire life. “Up until a few years ago she would walk around the center 10 times,” Miller said. “People would see here with her cane and say ‘There goes Ida.’”

Scaduto also became popular in the senior center for cooking and baking often. “She would make these fig cookies,” Miller said, “and they would take about a week to make.”

The Baldwin resident was born in Brooklyn to Sicilian immigrants who founded a chain of supermarkets called Charles Scaturro and Sons. She worked in the store as a cashier. “There were two or three cans on each shelf,” Miller said of the store’s beginnings.

Later in life, Scaduto became a seamstress. She lived in Brooklyn until she married her second husband, and moved to the senior center full-time when he died. She’s lived in Baldwin for about 25 years.

Scaduto has two children — Josephine and a son, Tom, who died — seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.