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______________ VALLEY STREAM _____________

HERALD

Fall in Love With Where You Live!

Celebrating Latino culture

District 24 holds workshop

Page 10

Page 32

VOL. 36 NO. 43

OCTOBER 23 - 29, 2025

$1.00

Natalie Toler,

Pumpkin spice, cozy nights, and the keys to your new home — it’s the ideal season to make a move!

Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker ABR, SRS, SRES, SFR O 5166693700 | M 5163 880912 | natalie.toler@ elliman.com

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elliman.com 110 WALT WHIT MAN

Club steps up for McDonald House dinner for the families staying at the Ronald McDonald house last year and had decided to make it When a last-minute cancella- an annual event, so there was tion left an open dinner slot at no hesitation on our part.” This year, with fewer volunthe Ronald McDonald House, the Valley Stream Kiwanis teers than before, the club opted to order food instead of Club didn’t hesitate to act. Within hours, members cooking on-site. Castelluzzo mobilized to ensure that fami- reached out to AP Pizza & Cafe, explained the situalies with hospitaltion, and asked if ized children would the business might not go without a be willing to conwar m meal. The tribute garlic knots effort involved coorand to-go containdination between ers. The restaurant club members and agreed to help. Club local supporters, highlighting both TINA CAsTELLuZZO supporters Joe and Nydia Corace then the club’s ongoing President, stepped in to procommunity service Valley Stream vide dessert, roundwork and its conKiwanis Club ing out the meal nections with area with cupcakes. businesses. Ronald McDonald House Members of the club delivered reached out to the Kiwanis the food, prepared the trays and Pediatric Trauma Center when packaged the meals so families the originally scheduled group could easily pick them up after was unable to provide dinner long days spent at the hospital on Oct. 11. The Kiwanis Club of with their children. “To be able to bring a glimValley Stream received a call for help through that network. mer of brightness, a helping According to club president hand, a smiling face, and a Tina Castelluzzo, when the warm meal to these families request came, there was no who are going through so much is priceless,” Castelluzzo said. uncertainty to step up. For membership coordinator “My club was all in,” Castelluzzo said. “We prepared dinner Continued on page 28

By ANGELINA ZINGARIELLO

azingariello@liherald.com

Alice Moreno/Herald

Good screaming fun A spooky welcome kicked off Halloween Family Fun Day last Saturday at Arthur J. Hendrickson Park, where hundreds of families gathered, many in costume, for a wide range of seasonal activities. Story, more photos, Page 3.

Former Valley Stream resident named to Latino Power 100 list By ANGELINA ZINGARIELLO azingariello@liherald.com

When Walter Mejia arrived in Valley Stream as a 10-year-old immigrant from El Salvador in 2006, he couldn’t have imagined that nearly two decades later he would be recognized among New York’s most influential Latino leaders. Mejia, now 29 and a resident of East Patchogue, has been named for the second consecutive year to City & State’s Latino Power 100 list, which highlights leaders shaping the state’s political and business landscape. The honor recognizes Mejia’s growing role in public service and his leadership as the founder

and president of New York Republican Latinos, an organization focused on civic engagement and outreach within the Hispanic community. After immigrating to the United States, his family settled down in a one-bedroom apartment on South Grove Street, near Rockaway Avenue, where his parents, Tatiana and Jimmy, raised him and his younger brother, Eduardo. “The only time we would come here was when we would come from vacation, and that’s about it,” Mejia said. “But moving and having the realization as a 10 year old that this is it, and you’re never going back to your home country, the friends you left behind, your family, your grandContinued on page 5

here was no hesitation on our part.