Professor Plum, in the back of the library, with drug awareness

In 1970, the Baldwin Council of Drug Abuse (BCADA) was founded by a woman named Ellen Silberman in the name of drug prevention, awareness, education and making a positive impact on the youth smoking marijuana. Coming aboard in 1986 as a part-time secretary, Claudia Rotondo has carried the torch of education and treatment since joining over three and a half decades ago. With a background in education, she started working together with social workers, psychologists and counselors. She was so impressed with the work she was doing she went back to college at Adelphi to get her master’s in social work.

“When I graduated Ellen said, ‘Okay, I’m ready to retire and you know as much about this agency as I do’ so she recommended me to become the executive director, which I became in 1994 and then we built the agency up,” said Rotondo. Located on Church Street in Baldwin, the agency had 80 clients in the low-end treatment scale, such as getting once a week individual counseling for gambling, mental health, and addiction on a sliding scale.

“In 2011 there were state budget cuts, really bad budget cuts and rather than cut from each (substance abuse) agency they decided to cut some of the smaller ones, but they took away 250,000 dollars from my treatment budget which left me with just prevention," Rotondo explained. “So, I wound up having to close down the agency because we couldn’t exist.” Staff had to be let go, interns sent elsewhere, and 85 clients transferred to other agencies, all Rotondo could do was “pray to god that they would go.”

However, persisting on, she struck a deal with then Baldwin Superintendent Dr. James D. Mapes. She’d use her prevention money to teach a ten-week curriculum called Too Good for Drugs, if he gave her an office, which was more like a closet, but it worked. Topics taught included goal setting, decision making, peer pressure, alcohol, marijuana, tobacco and more. Starting in 2012, she reached about 800 kids a year through the Baldwin school district and developed her pseudonym as “Professor Plum” for her distinct purple hair, outfits and accessories.

Over the years, Rotondo can’t remember just how many previous students have come up to her years after graduation and said something along the line of, “Professor Plum, I just want you to know you had me as a senior and I still haven’t done drugs.”

As part of the prevention grant and work plan given by the Office of Addiction Services and Supports, there needed to be involvement with a community coalition. So Rotondo simply started her own- the Community Coalition of Baldwin. “The purpose of that was to raise community awareness about substance abuse and to provide a positive alternative to kids, community members, who are having issues and also to bring the community together in a more cohesive way,” she said. Which the organization does each year with the Grand Baldwin Festival.

David Viana, who started the Baldwin Civic Association, was also in the coalition and came up with the idea of having a community festival to highlight local businesses. More than putting a spotlight on business, it’s also a way to, “open it up also to members, we have a lot of community members who have hobbies, that make jewelry, and they do paintings, and they make wreaths, so we give them a venue to start,” Rotondo said.

October 19, 2019 was the first of the Community Coalition of Baldwin Grand Baldwin Festival in collaboration with the Baldwin Public Library who helped sponsor the event. With over 70 vendors and 3,000 Baldwinites attending, it was marked as a huge success, with many remarking the feeling of pride in their community.  The foot traffic centralized by the library’s location and downtown businesses provided a mutually beneficial day for those who came down to the festival.

Picking up more speed, the festival has grown in its infancy, and this year on Oct. 1, Rotondo promises it will be the biggest yet with over one hundred vendor spaces available. In addition to shopping, there will be food, entertainment and resources about drug and alcohol awareness. At the first festival, local jazz player and educator Matt Wilson preformed, and although he is not locked in for this year, there is a chance he will preform again at the upcoming event. 

In addition to her work in the coalitions, Rotondo teaches as an adjunct professor at Molloy College, teaching students about substance abuse. “I teach that substance abuse doesn’t necessarily mean pills, drugs, alcohol. Gambling is an addiction and I do a whole section on gambling,” Rotondo said.

What makes gambling different is the way it’s easier to hide but just as destructive, “It’s not like you can take a urine test and see that you’re a gambler, there is no physical sign. They are so adept at covering up their illness, that the family members aren’t aware of it until somebody comes banging on the door to read to evict them from the house.”