Real estate broker collaborates with the Long Island Breakfast Club

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Looking to find new ways to support the middle-aged, the Long Island Breakfast Club has partnered with NextHome All Island. Real estate broker Ed Svec, who started his brokerage last year, said that the club has been a great resource on several different levels.

“There’s a lot of people that have various experiences, but they’re all able to come together and help each other out,” Svec said. “It’s a close-knit group. You’re building relationships and friendships, and that always leads to referrals and business. Unlike some networking groups that require you to bring in a referral for somebody every week or every month, this is very organic, which is great.”

Keeping families and middle-aged workers on Long Island is one of several goals for the club, which has roughly 50 members, including residents of Nassau and Suffolk counties. The Breakfast Club provides employment and career counseling, workshops, interviewing classes and referrals, among other assistance, to help those seeking employment after losing jobs in middle age. The club also hosts meetings each month, which include sessions at which attendees can discuss job interviews and listen to motivational speeches.

Svec hosted a breakfast earlier this summer at Olinda’s Café in West Hempstead with about 30 guests. It turned into a Q & A session on different topics such as permits, hiring contractors, grieving taxes, senior housing and understanding how to get a reduction on property taxes.

“People are always looking to save money,” Svec said. “One of the biggest things on Long Island right now is grieving your taxes so with the new reassessment of property taxes in Nassau County, the game plan was to spend a lot of time on that, and then to go over the basics of selling your home and maximizing your value through that.”

“I’m very thankful that the Breakfast Club uses us as a vehicle to reach out to people in the community,” said Olinda’s Café owner Roberto Ramirez. “Things like real estate, and the knowledge that people gain, and many things that people don’t know what to look for, they get to have that one-on-one advice.”

Long Island Breakfast Club founder and West Hempstead native Valentina Janek said that while the group is growing, having a local venue like Olinda’s Café has helped their outreach to the community.

“Olinda’s has been so kind to us,” Janek said. “They’ve helped so much with our mission, and we had another great turnout when we had the meeting with Ed Svec.”

Ramirez, a West Hempstead resident, added that the club’s selflessness makes hosting events for them a no-brainer. “They find a way to integrate everybody in the community, but the fact that they go out of their way to help everybody is wonderful.”

The Breakfast Club’s next event is book-signing party for Janek’s book, “From Fired to Freedom — How Life After the Big Bad Boot Gave Me Wings,” on Saturday, at 7 p.m. Other books featured include “Silent Words,” by Nicholas Shatarah and “Write that Book,” by Stephanie Larkin. There will be also be music featured by Doreen Firestone. Light refreshments will be served. The event, which will be held at Barnes Gallery Custom Framing, at 2 Nassau Boulevard, Garden City South, will be co-sponsored by NextHome All Island.