Helen Duryea, Karl Riesterer Sr., Lesley McAvoy honored by rotary club

Every neighbor contributes to their community in some way — but few take it the extra mile. Helen Duryea, Karl Riesterer Sr. and Lesley McAvoy are three of those neighbors. Their years of service to West Hempstead earned them major recognitions from the Nassau County Rotary Foundation.

“People who are givers,” Rony Kessler, president of the county Rotary Foundation, said of the honorees. “People who meet this model of service above self.”

The dinner, at Plattduetsche Park Restaurant on May 16, celebrated Riesterer and Dureya as the 2024 county Rotary Foundation honorees. Lesley McAvoy, president of the West Hempstead Historical Society, was honored with the foundation’s Paul Harris Award. The annual event, called the “Feed the Hungry, Help the Needy” dinner, is the rotary foundation’s biggest fundraising event.

“A lot of the people that do a lot are not looking for recognition,” Kessler said. “Karl Riesterer, you know from the bakery, but how many people know he was a firefighter? Same with Helen — she’s 96, years old and still very active, running the West Hempstead Historical Society.

“These are the kinds of people that really don’t get recognition, because they’re not looking for that recognition. So we try to highlight them.”

Helen Duryea, 96, comes from a family that helped build West Hempstead. Her father, Edwin Duryea, started as a successful farmer in the neighborhood and then moved on to real estate. He was instrumental in the formation of the West Hempstead Fire Department and the West Hempstead School District, specifically Chestnut Street School, Eagle Avenue School and George Washington School. He is the namesake of “Duryea Terrace,” and his grandparents were the namesake of “Bedell Terrace.”

Duryea was a trailblazer who has “remarkably mirrored the business acumen, civic-mindedness, generosity, and kindness of her father with her own individual style,” McAvoy said.

Though it was uncommon for women at the time, Duryea went to business school and then began a forty-two-year career in real estate and insurance. She eventually became an equal partner at a time when women were seldom in such roles.

Duryea continues her community work and philanthropy today. She funds scholarships at Johns Hopkins, Hofstra, and the University of Richmond. Locally, she contributes to the Historical Society, the Community Support Association, the fire department, and the West Hempstead department of education. She is the “heart and memory” of the historical society, McAvoy said.

Karl Riesterer Sr. also followed in the footsteps of his father, August Riesterer, who was a Master Baker in Germany who immigrated to America and started Riesterer’s Bakery in 1931. The bakery is the oldest family-run bakery in the state.

Riesterer earned degrees in both business and cake decorating, and also became a Master Baker.

But he doesn’t just bake — Riesterer served as the chief, and later commissioner, of the West Hempstead Fire Department; president of the Police Benevolent Association; president of the West Hempstead Chamber of Commerce; president of the New York Bakers Association, and president of the Retail Bakers of America. He was also a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve.

Riesterer is also a lifelong philanthropist. He supports the state’s Baker’s Scholarships, the Long Island Chamber of Commerce, and the North Fork Community Theater.

But his most beloved contributions are “his kind acts which kneaded a community together,” McAvoy said.

His chocolate bunny demonstrations for scouts and school groups; giving toddlers a tiny cookie when they come in to the bakery with their parents; years and years of purchasing pages in sports, school, and community journals. He’s sponsored Little League teams. He even hosted the West Hempstead High School — from which he graduated in the inaugural class of ’55 — at his home out east. Today he hosts the West Hempstead Historical Society for their monthly meetings at the bakery.

He enjoys a family life with his three children, from his late wife Geraldine, his seven grandchildren and his wife Jeanette.

Duryea and Riesterer have been lifelong friends and continue to work together to give back to West Hempstead.

Those who are interested in joining the Nassau County Rotary Foundation are encouraged to check out a meeting, or email Kessler at RonyRotary@aol.com. The foundation has special rates for people under 40.