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TBR Staff

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TBR News Media covers everything happening on the North Shore of Suffolk County from Cold Spring Harbor to Wading River.

Photo by Gayatri Malhotra. Unsplash photo

People often wish they could turn back time. The U.S. Supreme Court did just that on Friday, June 24.

America has been cast back to the mid-20th century as states can now make it illegal for women to get abortions. The justices overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision that granted a pregnant woman federal license to have an abortion and struck down federal and state laws that forbade the medical procedure. The recent Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision also overturned Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that affirmed Roe’s central holding and cemented abortion access as judicial precedent. 

Around two dozen states are now poised to criminalize abortion, a collective slap in the face to all women from the court’s conservative majority. Women of childbearing age will now have fewer options than their mothers or grandmothers. The reversal can lead to dangerous abortions, especially when one has limited access to health care.

The U.S. already has the highest maternal mortality rates among developed nations, according to the Commonwealth Fund. The actual number is bound to climb as women’s reproductive health is no longer federally protected.

How will these states deal with the repercussions? How will they pay for children whose parents can’t afford to raise them or for the therapy some women will need after delivering a child conceived during rape? Who will adopt or foster the children who are given up, because a mother knows she can’t take care of her child.

Yes, there are more ways to try to prevent unwanted pregnancies. However, birth control is not 100%, and in the case of rape, sometimes by someone who is known, people are not always given a choice regarding having sex.

What’s equally disturbing is that Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that other landmark decisions such as those regarding contraception, sodomy laws and same-sex marriage should be reconsidered.

Are the Supreme Court justices allowing religion to motivate them when making these decisions or suggesting reviews of other laws? There have been debates over when life begins, because we live in a melting pot where people come from various religious backgrounds and some don’t identify with any one religion. In the U.S., we have varying opinions on numerous subjects. There is a need to make a decision considering those varying opinions.

Most of all, women deserve body autonomy. Lawmakers can’t make Americans donate organs after death, so how can they tell women that no matter what their circumstances, one option is not available to them.

The reversal of Roe v. Wade sets a dangerous precedent. Allowing states to set their own laws regarding major issues can lead to chaos.

U.S. citizens don’t have to sit on the sidelines. Every election is a chance to voice our opinions. During the midterm elections, vote for the candidates who will protect and fight for our rights to make our own personal choices.

Seniors from Smithtown High School East and Smithtown High School West filled their schools’ football fields as students for the last time on Thursday, June 23.

Smithtown East’s commencement ceremony celebrated the graduation of 401 students and featured the district’s Assistant Superintendent Kevin Simmons, who was the principal at East for 3 1/2 years before moving to the district office, as the keynote speaker.

The two student speakers were Aman Mistry, who was voted by fellow seniors as the honor speaker, and Trishaulla Kanhai, who is president of the Class Council.

At Smithtown West, 358 students received their diplomas. Superintendent Mark Secaur addressed the students. National Honor Society President Tyler Nagosky was chosen by his classmates to speak at the ceremony and co-presidents Hunter Hayes and Madison Hilman also delivered speeches.

Sophia Bica is Northport High School’s Female Athlete of the Year. Photo by Steven Zaitz

By Steven Zaitz

A cavalcade of stars – both athletic and academic – walked the blue and gold carpet of the Northport High School main auditorium on Friday night for the 2022 NESPY awards. 

The best and brightest senior Tiger athletes were recognized for their accomplishments on and off the field during 2021-22 – and in a year of great success for the Northport Athletic Program as a whole, there were almost too many to count. 

Sophia Bica and Dylan McNaughton were the biggest winners, each grabbing two individual awards and one team award, as well as Jason Ahlstrand, who won for best Male Athlete. Head baseball coach Sean Lynch and girls head soccer coach Aija Gipp presided over the ceremonies. 

Bica, who will attend the Stevens Institute of Technology in the fall, won for Best Female Athlete as well as Best Record-Breaking career. She led the Lady Tigers Field Hockey team to a New York State Championship last November and a Long Island Title in 2020, a year that had no State play. Bica, a starter on the field hockey team since the eighth grade, holds the Northport High School record for assists in a career.  

She was also a superstar point guard and four-year varsity player for Coach Castellano and his Lady Tigers basketball team. She led Northport to the Suffolk County AA Championships in three of those years and this past season, was the league’s Most Valuable Player. In addition to these individual awards, Bica’s Field Hockey squad won the 2022 NESPY statue for Best Female team. She will be playing both sports at Stevens. 

“I will cherish this recognition and will always remember the great feeling I got every time I went out there with my team and had a big win,” said Bica, who glowed in a pink and gray flowery chiffon gown. 

McNaughton, for as long as the people of Northport can remember, has never taken a day off. From the classroom to the gridiron over to the hardwood and the Lacrosse field, Big Dyl’s uniform was always dirty and there wasn’t a loose ball that he didn’t think was his. 

In his senior year he was All-Suffolk at linebacker for the football team, played for the county championship in basketball and was one win away from winning a New York State Title in lacrosse. In the classroom, he had a 104.9 weighted grade point average which made him a National Football Foundation Scholar Athlete. McNaughton, who is headed for the University of Indiana, won NESPYs for Best Male Student Athlete and Male Tiger Icon Athlete. The Lacrosse team, for whom he scored 14 goals in 2022, was awarded Male Team of the Year for their State Title game appearance. 

“Winning two NESPYs was a special way to end my Tiger career,” said McNaughton. “Ever since freshman year I wanted to win one and last night that dream came true, and it was awesome.” 

Jason Ahlstrand of Tiger Football and Basketball is the 2021-22 NESPY Male Athlete of the Year. Photo by Steven Zaitz

Ahlstrand, whose dazzling smile and flamboyant style of play made him a Tiger fan favorite, won for Best Male Athlete. 

From his crazy basketball dunks to his long touchdown catches, Ahlstrand was one of the most entertaining sports stars to grace Northport High School in recent years. He was also a deadly accurate field goal kicker and if he was defending you in basketball, you were in for a very long day. He was All-Suffolk County in football in 2021 and MVP of the team, recording seven touchdowns and 67 total points. He helped the Hoopin’ Tigers to a 50-6 record during his three-year career at guard and was a key member of the team that upset Brentwood for a Suffolk Title in 2020-21. He ended his career by taking home the NESPY for Best Male Athlete and will play football at SUNY Cortland in September. 

“I’m just so happy to receive this award,” said Ahlstrand. I’m glad that I’ll always have these memories to look back on.” 

Bica’s field hockey teammate and lacrosse star Angelina Longo was voted Iconic Female Athlete of the year. The future Arizona State Sun Devil and two-time all-New York State defender had 19 steals in the Field Hockey Championship game against Shenendehowa in the Lady Tigers breathtaking 1-0 victory at Centereach. She was also the all-state Sportsmanship Award recipient in 2022 and was the embodiment of #NotDoneYet nation during their undefeated 21-0 campaign. 

Lisa Kovacs, one of the most well-rounded people ever to grace the hallways of N.H.S., was awarded the Best Female Student-Athlete. Kovacs led the girls soccer team to a 14-3 record and a number one seed in the Suffolk County AA playoff bracket this past autumn.  This is a small blip on the radar screen of what Kovacs is all about. She qualified for National Honor Society and made the Honor Roll every quarter of her academic career, she’s been the Student Council Class President three years running, a volunteer Math Tutor, a Doctors of Tomorrow Program Award recipient, and she even works at the hotdog stand on Football Saturdays. Kovacs is as big a part of the fabric of the Northport High School student body as there is, and she’s also a tough-as-nails soccer player who battles deep in the dirt for every possession. She will be attending Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. 

Nick Watts isn’t your average basketball big man. Although he is 6’7”, he doesn’t just lurk around the paint and post up his man for easy layups. He does everything well, he’s a fiery competitor and a great and unselfish teammate. Watts was awarded the NESPY for Best Breakthrough Athlete and Best Individual Performance. He earned the latter for his 12 three pointers and 42 points in the first half against Connetquot – one of the most memorable Tiger feats in 2021-22, in a year filled with them. Watts is also a great rebounder, passer, shot blocker and overall defender.  He will attend the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. 

On a team of stars, future Duke Blue Devil Kaylie Mackiewicz snagged the Best Female Individual Performance NESPY for her unstoppable goal-scoring abilities in girls lacrosse. A five-year varsity starter, she scored the game-winning goal in double overtime to win the Long Island Championship just a few weeks ago.  It’s only one of a dizzying checklist of achievements for the All-American who scored 138 goals over the past two years, has a weighted GPA of over 100, and is an Academic All American. 

Other 2021-22 NESPY winners are Charlotte McGroarty for female Breakthrough Athlete of the Year. McGroarty was part of a State Championship field hockey team, a State finalist lacrosse team and Suffolk County finals-reaching basketball team. Chase Hendrickson, who ran track for the first time this year, qualified for States in the 400-meter sprint. He won the NESPY for male Breakthrough Athlete of the Year. Will Flynn was the winner of the Comeback Player of the Year NESPY, as he made it back on the football and lacrosse fields after suffering a torn labrum which required surgery and a grueling rehab. Aiden Stang won for Best Upset of the Year as he defeated the top ranked wrestler in his weight class in the League II tournament. Tom Izzo was awarded the NESPY for Courage as a member of the Tiger Unified basketball team, for whom he played all four years of his high school career. 

CELEBRATING COMMUNITY

The Kings Park Chamber of Commerce hosted the 44th annual Kings Park Day on June 18. The community descended on Main Street for a street fair with live music, food and crafts. The event was also the perfect place to shop for Father’s Day.

All photos by Steven Zaitz

Frank Boulton, third from right in front row, cuts the ribbon with County Executive Robert Gaffney, second from left in front row, state Senator Owen Johnson, third from left, and other officials in April 2000. Photo from the Long Island Ducks

By James Teese

[email protected]

“Fans come first.”

Buddy Harrelson’s oft-stated line was true when he and Frank Boulton founded the Long Island Ducks and “fans come first” remains a baseball and business mantra for a thriving organization that still draws legions of fans to the ballpark — over eight million since the team played its inaugural season in 2000.

Patrick Czark, 10, of Setauket, shows off the bat he received for being the first child in line for tickets in 2012. Photo by James Teese

With deep community ties — Boulton from Brightwaters, Harrelson in Hauppauge — the high school baseball player turned successful bond trader and New York Mets World Series champion — created and grew what has become one of Long Island’s great attractions. And the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (ALPB), also founded by Boulton, became a reality as an independent league as the owner negotiated to bring a ballpark and a team to Suffolk.

“So, I started working on the Atlantic league in the early to mid 90s,” Boulton said. “It took me about five years to get everything put together in the ballparks and the ballparks being built for the Atlantic League.” 

Already an owner of minor league teams, Boulton always wanted to bring a ball club to his Long Island home, seeing the potential as he had elsewhere.

“We saw that [in other locales] we had the same kind of families in Wilmington, Delaware as in Long Island … very similar,” he said.

He saw similar “socioeconomic groupings” and “thought that with our density of population [on Long Island] and the fact that we really didn’t have anything like [a minor league team].”

“At the time, you know, there was no aquarium,” he said “People would go to the beaches … we were an island … with beaches, sailing, even water skiing. But being a baseball guy, I just saw the demographics were just too ripe here.”

“And I wanted to take what I learned on the road,” he added. “Just like a Broadway show when they first take a show on the road.”

In fact, part of the move to create the ALPB and the Ducks was spurred by the New York Mets organization vetoing an unaffiliated minor league team within 75 miles of their own ball club. Boulton had originally hoped to move his New York Yankees farm team to Suffolk; the Yankees were OK, the Mets were not.

Public private partnership

Now known as Fairfield Properties Ballpark, in 2000 the Ducks played under the banner of EAB Ballpark. It was, and remains owned by Suffolk County, which also collects the monies from the naming rights.

Boulton has nothing but praise for the state and county officials who helped make the stadium a reality.

“As a young man, I had been involved with the YMCA,” Boulton said. “I’ve been involved in many different community endeavors …So I got to meet a lot of elected officials. I had worked with [State Senator] Owen Johnson and … without Owen Johnson, this ballpark probably wouldn’t have been built.” 

Johnson went to the New York State Empire Development Corp.

“We gained $14.3 million dollars, economic state, a grant for which Suffolk County [gained the benefit],” he added. Bob Gaffney was the County Executive at the time, and he and his guy [Deputy CE] Eric Kopp … were very instrumental. They were both big baseball fans, Bob and Eric. The county level [of government] was great!”

Then-Commissioner of Public Works for the County, Charles Bartha, remembered a fast-paced project.

“[The ballpark] was designed and built in just 14 months from when the grant was signed,” the engineer said. 

The lead architectural firm was BD Harvey, he said, a national firm that was one of only a handful that did work on big ballparks. 

The county’s officials had “a strong feeling and confidence in Frank [Boulton’s] ability to promote and run [the team and ballpark.]”

The county, said Boulton, “has seen a return on its money from day one.”

Lined up for tickets

The Czark Family. Photo by James Teese

After a decade, the fans still lined up. In 2012, this reporter recalls, some light snow and low temperatures did not deter faithful fans on a Saturday morning for the opening of the then-named Bethpage Ballpark ticket office. 

The Czark Family from Setauket comprised the first fans in line for a second consecutive year, having arrived Thursday morning.

“I was not ready [for the snow] but we got through it.  We were online about 48 hours,” Christopher Czark said. “The kids just enjoy coming out to the ballpark. The Ducks always have something new every year. The girls like Sundays when they get to run the bases and meet the players. It’s a great experience for them.”

Getting fans and community involved

During games, fans are a part of the show. In-between every inning, the Ducks hold what they call “fan-interactive promotions” on the field. The activities, which fans sign-up for, are sometimes sweepstakes, other times funny contests such as ’dizzy bats” or ”musical chairs,” and sometimes a celebration of a young fan’s birthday — joined by QuackerJack and serenaded by the on-field host.

Even for family members less enthusiastic about baseball, there is constant action and entertainment. Sunday is Family Funday, including the post-game opportunity for kids to line-up by first base and run the bases to home plate.

And special games are followed by numerous Postgame Fireworks Spectaculars, a favorite for thousands of fans who regularly fill the ballpark for the pyrotechnic display.

More seriously, at every home game the team recognizes local veterans as well as active-duty service men and women, this year with the Suffolk County Office of Veteran Affairs and New York Community Bank, in a program called “Heroes of the Game.” 

“The feedback we received from fans, veterans, sponsors and the community has been tremendously positive,” said Ducks President and General Manager Michael Pfaff.

In fact, when the public address system marks the moment, the fans — in a county which is home to nearly 100,000 veterans — consistently rise to deliver a standing ovation.

Outside the ballpark, QuackerJack and team members are often seen in the community, participating in local parades and charity drives, visiting hospitals, schools and more.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ducks hosted numerous donation events at the ballpark, and acted as a vaccination site.  Programs to aid the community are ongoing and effective fundraisers, whether its “Home Runs for Hunger” or “Breast Cancer Awareness Night,” the Ducks are a vibrant and contributing force in the surrounding communities.

Ducks fans all

After being refused the chance to relocate his Yankees farm team, Boulton had a realization: “If I had had a Yankee team, I would have been splitting the baby. So, now we have Yankee fans that are Ducks fans, and we have Mets fans that are Ducks fans.”

And just plain Ducks fans, of course. 

Whether it’s through promotions, the reasonably priced tickets and concessions, or the free parking, the Ducks endeavor to provide a cost-effective choice for a family’s scarce disposable dollars.

Twenty-one seasons and counting, and fans still come first.

James Teese has written for numerous Long Island news outlets and has covered the Long Island Ducks since their first Opening Day.

Cartoon by Kyle Horne: kylehorneart.com

A government is only as democratic as the freedom and fairness of its electoral process. 

Right now, the legislative and executive branches of the Suffolk County government are at odds over what constitutes a free and fair election. At a press conference last week, County Executive Steve Bellone (D) defended a 2017 law that created a public campaign finance fund. He said this program, which is set to take effect during the 2023 county election cycle, will restore “the people’s faith and trust in government.”

At the same time, the Republican majority intends to repeal the law, arguing the program undermines trust in government as public funds will inevitably be used to finance campaigns that some voters do not endorse. Instead, it favors using that money to strengthen public safety initiatives around the county.

While the political branches battle it out, it is worth noting that this program is not supported by tax revenue. Rather, it is supported by revenues generated by Jake’s 58 Casino Hotel, which was acquired last year by Suffolk Regional Off-Track Betting. The question that no one has asked is how OTB factors into this equation.

For eons, societies have struggled to root out vice and promote virtue among their people. It seems a fact of human nature that we are created with various flaws and foibles. Gambling, boozing and prostitution are nasty habits that will be among us regardless of the system of government that we put in place. 

Using gambling revenues to finance grassroots campaigns seems to be a noble end. This is not much different from a real estate developer contributing monetarily to a community to compensate for the potential losses incurred during the buildout. Attaching a just cause to an activity like gambling appears to be a worthwhile undertaking. Bellone himself said, “I can’t think of a better way that we can utilize those dollars.” 

However, if we are going to stake our democracy and the integrity of our elections on this public campaign finance program, we must demand much greater transparency from the institution that will be supporting it, Suffolk OTB. As recently as March, a local activist referred to OTB as “a known patronage mill.” 

There are still far too many questions yet to be answered by OTB. What percentage of its revenue will be used to finance elections? What is the leadership hierarchy? How many people are employed? What is the process for securing employment there? How does the power source of our democracy still not have an “about” page on its website?

It is a giant leap of faith on the part of voters to expect a gaming parlor to act in the best interests of the people. Attempting to power democracy through gambling is a high-risk maneuver that requires much stricter oversight on the part of the administration. The only way this can be possible is through frequent hearings, press conferences and financial disclosures from OTB. 

The fact that there is friction between the political branches in Suffolk is a good thing. As the county executive and Legislature quarrel over the future of public campaign finance, there are important questions that the public needs answered. For any of this to work, we the people need to be constantly briefed about OTB’s various dealings. This is a basic principle of democracy.

Cindy M. Smith was over many years an enthusiastic champion of Long Island artists. She and her husband Warren Strugatch shared the art collecting bug, owning landscapes and abstractions by Ty Stroudsburg, Nan Kemp, Doug Reina and many others. In nice weather, the Stony Brook couple climbed into their white Miata, put the top down, and toured art spaces between Manhattan and Montauk. Whether they bought or not, they offered words of encouragement to artists, praising what they liked and asking where the artists would be exhibiting next.

Over time they struck up many artworld friendships. The pair frequently invited painters and other creative folks to visit them in their sprawling, sun-drenched home off Stony Brook Road where the works they collected went on display.

Cindy gave special encouragement to women artists, her husband said. “I think she realized that many women must work harder to be taken seriously as artists. She was highly empathetic to that. When she bought a painting from a female artist, she felt she was not only saying the right thing, but doing the right thing, too.”

Sadly, Cindy passed away Feb. 15 after a long battle with leukemia. The Long Island Museum has dedicated its current exhibition, “Two Centuries of Women Artists,” to her memory. On June 9th the museum held a reception for “Two Centuries,” which Joshua Ruff, the museum’s deputy director, said was one “Cindy would have loved.”

“We miss her greatly,” Ruff said, “not least because she lived her passion for the arts every day. Without passion, the arts wither. Without inclusivity, the arts deflate. She and Warren helped establish connections to some of the finest artists we have added to our campus is recent years. Their boundless energy boosted our exhibition openings, energized our concerts, and bolstered our community.”

Warren, who sponsored the reception in his wife’s memory, said that he would be leaving their house in Stony Brook as it was now “too big just for me.” A writer and consultant, he is keeping their art trove intact. He plans to transport it and much of the couple’s Midcentury Modern furniture collection to his new apartment in Astoria. 

“The walls are pretty tall” in his new apartment, he said. “I’m pretty sure there will be room for all the art we collected. Seeing the art every day helps keep Cindy in mind for me. Her enthusiasm was true and contagious.”

See video footage of the reception below.

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Nico VI, above, is being trained by volunteer Andrea Spencer, of Stony Brook, to one day assist people with disabilities. Photo from Canine Companions

By Amanda Olsen

There can be little doubt that Andrea Spencer is a dog person.

Nico with volunteer trainer Andrea Spencer. Photo from Canine Companions

The Stony Brook resident has rescued Labradors since 2011, fostering and training them while they were waiting for their forever homes. She also co-chairs the DogFest Long Island fundraiser at Marjorie R. Post Community Park in Massapequa and is currently raising a puppy, Nico VI, for Canine Companions.

This is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1975 that provides highly trained assistance dogs to people with disabilities free of charge. Puppy raisers provide specially bred puppies a safe home, take them to obedience classes, serve them a healthy diet, provide socialization opportunities and give them lots of love. Each hour spent caring for a Canine Companions puppy is vital to its development as a future service dog. 

Spencer’s puppy-raising journey began with a rescued yellow Lab named Ruby, who came from Louisiana to live with Spencer and her family. She remembers her fondly.

“She was really my heart dog,” Spencer said. “She was really the dog that brought me into all of my volunteer work.” 

Around 2017, a friend first mentioned Canine Companions as a possible service opportunity, and the organization kept entering Spencer’s life. She attended a couple of puppy matriculation ceremonies, a kind of graduation where the dogs move on from living with their raisers to formal training at the Canine Companions center. It was a turning point for Spencer.

“The graduation was an inspirational, beautiful, wonderful thing,” she said. “It was basically just life changing for me as far as working with Canine Companions.”

After a long, happy life, Ruby passed from lung cancer in August 2020. Spencer credits this loss as the catalyst for her puppy raising.

“And once we kind of settled from that storm, my husband said, ‘We’ve always thought in the back of our heads, you’d like to do something more for Canine Companions. Why don’t we raise a puppy in Ruby’s honor?’ I said, ‘You know what, that’s such a great idea.’”

The family began the process, first with the application in January 2021, then an extensive interview in March of that year. Once that part of the process was over, and they were approved, all that was left to do was wait. 

That September, Nico arrived in New York, and the Spencers were now raising a future service dog for Canine Companions. 

Nico is a Lab/golden retriever cross, which is a special mix Canine Companions breeds for its service dog program. This mix is both personable and very trainable. Spencer said that there are many things Nico picks up on without training, and when she does train him, he learns quickly. 

“With the Spencer family’s love and guidance, Nico is on his way to becoming a Canine Companions service dog, and will someday be matched with an adult, child or veteran with a disability free of charge,” said John Bentzinger, Canine Companions regional public relations and marketing coordinator, in an email. “Nico is being taught basic commands and socialization skills and, in another seven to 10 months, he’ll be returned to Canine Companions where he’ll work for six months with our professional instructors learning over 40 advanced commands that are useful to a person with disabilities. Nico will learn how to open and close doors, turn lights on and off, and pick up dropped items to name just a few.”

One of the biggest challenges is training the puppies to control their excitement. 

“They’re really bred to love people and be with people and be with everybody,” Spencer said. “So that actually provides a little bit of a challenge as a puppy raiser because they really want to go see everybody and they get excited. So, we work on having good manners in public.”

Being in public and being well socialized is critical to the service dog’s success. The dog has to be comfortable in multiple locations on a variety of surfaces. “We want him to be completely focused in these locations, not just in the home where he is the majority of the time,” Spencer said. 

Some commands are specific to his training as a service dog.

“They’re taught to bark a sequence of three, four or five times, and then quiet is paired with that because they don’t want the barking for 20 minutes,” she said. “They just want you barking to kind of alert someone.”

There is a huge network of support for people who decide to raise puppies for Canine Companions. Not only are there informal connections with other volunteers, but the national nonprofit provides each raiser with a mentor called a “puppy pal.”

“It’s a mentoring program with a raiser who’s raised at least three dogs,” Spencer said. “They hook you up with that person and throughout their puppyhood, you can call them or email them or text them.”

Of course, the No. 1 thing Spencer gets asked is how she will feel when Nico leaves her care and goes on to formal training.

“The Lab rescue was like my training or my internship,” she said. “I would have fosters in my house anywhere from one week to two months, and then they would go on to their adoptive homes. And believe me, it wasn’t easy, but you see that you’re helping. I think having a resident dog in the house helps. I look at this not like Nico’s my pet, but he’s my job. You have to have the right mindset for it.”

She also credits her son, Jared, who has Autism, for helping to forge a connection with Nico’s future recipient.

“I think having a child who is disabled and seeing that this organization serves that community has made that connection for me.” 

For Spencer, the decision to raise again is a given.

“I will definitely raise again, because it’s just such a wonderful experience,” she said. “I think as you subsequently raise, even though it’s different, you have all of the basic knowledge, the training tools, the understanding of what they need to learn. Of course, you’re going to have different obstacles with each puppy, because puppies are like humans, they’re all different. But yes, I definitely think we’ll raise again.”

Her advice for people considering raising is straightforward.

“I think if you’re considering raising you have to have a certain mindset, that you’re raising this puppy not for you but for to help somebody,” she said. “You definitely need to have the entire family on board, because it does become a family affair. You’re going to have challenges, but you’re going to also have great successes. There is a very strong network of support right here on Long Island. And really, we’ve become a family. We call it the Canine Companion family. And it’s something that is so rewarding on so many levels. And you know, hopefully more people will join in and take part in this because without the puppy raising there are no dogs.”