Friday, October 23, 2026
Jeanine Badalamenti’s commitment to Oceanside is about more than volunteering at community events or supporting local programs. It is about making sure families have the resources they need, children have opportunities they might otherwise miss and residents have a place where they feel welcome.
Those are the kinds of opportunities that have kept Badalamenti involved with the Oceanside Kiwanis Club for the past eight years. Now, as the organization’s new president for 2026-27, she hopes to expand that work, bring more residents into the fold and ensure the club continues making a difference for the next generation.
“I think we all find something that’s important to us and a way to give back,” Badalamenti said. “And this was it for me.”
For Badalamenti, 47, that commitment is personal. She has lived in Oceanside her entire life, following in the footsteps of her mother, who also grew up in the community. She has raised her children, Jules, 21, and TJ, 17, there, and both she and her children are graduates of School No. 5.
“I want Oceanside to keep the reputation that it’s had in the past and build on that, making it a family-focused town,” she said.
Although she had seen Kiwanis members at community events for years, Badalamenti initially knew little about the organization’s work. A conversation with her friend Vincent Staffa, an Oceanside fire commissioner and Kiwanis member, encouraged her to learn more. He described a group dedicated to helping the community and gave her an application.
She signed up eight years ago, just as the club was preparing for its holiday activities with the town’s Department of Community Activities. The experience introduced her to the number of families and children the organization reached and encouraged her to become more involved.
“I spoke to some of the other board members that were there and just asked how I could get more involved,” she said. “And that just totally opened up a can of worms from there.”
Badalamenti began coordinating raffles, joined the board and eventually became club secretary, serving from 2021 to 2024. She moved into the first vice president role in 2024 and took the helm this year. She has also advised the elementary school’s K-Kids service leadership program since 2022.
The presidency was not something she initially envisioned. Instead, she said, each opportunity grew out of a willingness to help wherever she could.
Her professional experience has also shaped her leadership. Badalamenti works as a fundraiser for the New York Building Congress, a membership organization, where she draws on skills that translate naturally to coordinating volunteers, building relationships and organizing projects.
Michael D’Ambrosio, a former Kiwanis president who worked closely with Badalamenti when she was club secretary, said those strengths make her particularly effective at bringing people together.
“She has a knack about getting people together and making things happen,” D’Ambrosio said. “She recognizes the strengths people bring to an organization and finds ways to put those skills to use.”
D’Ambrosio also sees Badalamenti’s leadership as an opportunity to bring a fresh perspective to an organization with an 81-year history. She is the first woman to serve as Oceanside Kiwanis president since 2013.
For Badalamenti, moving the organization forward means preserving its traditions while finding new ways to reach residents who might not know how to get involved.
“There are a lot of good hearts in Oceanside,” she said. “A lot of people who want to do good for the community and the kids in it.”
The challenge, she said, is connecting those people with opportunities to help. At the club’s recent installation dinner, which drew more than 200 people, she realized that many attendees were unfamiliar with how to become active members.
“It's tough to break into a new group,” Badalamenti said. “But, you know, these organizations — not just Kiwanis, Oceanside Community Warriors, Oceanside Community Service — all looking for volunteers to help out.”
She hopes to make that first step easier through expanded email outreach, stronger connections with local schools and continued collaboration with the high school’s Key Club and the elementary school’s K-Kids program. She also planned to speak with eighth-grade students about civic involvement.
Her efforts come as many community organizations struggle to find volunteers who can balance service with jobs, family obligations and other commitments. Badalamenti said funding is another challenge, particularly when communities may not recognize the needs that exist among their neighbors.
“It's a lot of needs that people aren't always aware of and how to actually help and how to join in,” she said.
That awareness has grown through her own volunteer work. Badalamenti said some families still struggle to afford necessities and opportunities for their children.
The club awards scholarships to Oceanside High School students, supports school supply initiatives and sends children to Camp Kiwanis for a week during the summer. It also helps families subsidize the cost of the town’s Department of Community Activities summer programs, giving children a safe place to spend their days while their parents work.
“It's really just trying to find a way to give these kids memories that are going to make a lasting impact,” she said.
Her presidency will also extend the club’s work beyond Oceanside. Kiwanis recently secured a grant to improve three visitation rooms used by children in foster care and their families at a Nassau County Department of Social Services facility on Charles Lindbergh Boulevard in Uniondale. The club will work to transform the rooms into more welcoming spaces for children and their families, with the planned improvements including fresh paint, new furniture, murals, toys and activities.
The project particularly resonates with Badalamenti because it offers a way to support children who may be navigating difficult circumstances while giving their families a more comfortable place to spend time together.
“I am extremely proud to work alongside Jeanine on this project,” D’Ambrosio said. “It reflects both her and the club’s mission to help children and families beyond our immediate neighborhood.”
As Badalamenti balances her career, family and volunteer responsibilities, she credits her husband, Tony, and their children for supporting her commitment. She believes service does not have to look the same for everyone — people can contribute their time, money or professional skills in ways that fit their lives.
“If you have, you give,” she said. “And if it doesn't, giving comes in a lot of different forms. It can be monetary; it can be your professional experiences that you can lend; it's your time. So, we all have to figure out a way to give.”
That philosophy is central to what she hopes to accomplish during her presidency. As she begins her term, Badalamenti hopes to bring people together around that idea, preserving the traditions that have sustained Kiwanis while making the organization more accessible to a new generation of volunteers.
“I want us to be the community organization that people want to be part of,” she said. “And if it's not what they're looking for, that we can connect them to the place that they want to be.”
