Upcoming Meetings and Events

Executive Board Meeting
April 21
10:00am
Brentwood Public Library
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General Membership Meeting
May 6
10:00am
Brentwood Public Library

Events Schedule

Meetings Schedule

SAD SHARING
POSTED 4/5/22
     Ellen Barbara Cleary passed on March 20, 2022. Ellen retired from the Brentwood School district after 20 years as a front office secretary at Northeast Elementary School. Her husband Donald was a library clerk at East Kindergarten Center, and her son Joseph is a teacher at the High School.
      The family held a private cremation. She was a special soft-spoken lady who was always up for an adventure and loved traveling whether by car, plane or motorcycle! She will be missed by all who knew her!

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IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN!
SCHOLARSHIP DRIVE
POSTED 4/25/22

     Due to the continued generosity of our members, ROBS was able to award scholarships this academic school year to six graduating seniors planning on pursuing careers in education. Honored students and their families will be recognized at the Brentwood High School Scholarship Awards Presentation in May.
     Although the pandemic has kept us from meeting in person as a group, it’s not too late to contribute. ROBS continues to be actively committed to fostering the educational goals and dreams of our Brentwood students. Checks should be made out to ROBS with ‘scholarship fund’ written on the memo line and mailed to:
Carmen Roldan
49 Linda Lane
North Babylon, New York 11703

     Thank you for your support. Still serving…and making a difference!

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PROJECT HOPE - SUBURBAN HOUSING THANKS ROBS
POSTED 4/5/22
      Through the generous efforts of you, our ROBS members, we were able to assist this organization by adopting families during the traditional holiday season. Through Project Hope we have directly touched the lives of children in the community.  The following is a letter that ROBS received from Suburban Housing.

Click on Letter to enlarge

SAD SHARING
POSTED 4/5/22
     Joan Isabel Cook passed on March 13, 2022. She taught elementary school in Brentwood for 30 years before resettling in Laguna Niguel, California. She had an unbridled love of children and was never happier than when she was with them. She was a loyal and loving friend to all who were fortunate enough to know her, and her smile and kind words will be sorely missed but never forgotten.
      A private burial took place on Long Island.  

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Why did we do it?
     What was our purpose in taking on such an open ended “History Project”; for which we evolved a script of questions and got answers from over 150 subjects for two decades?
     We couldn’t answer the question in 1994 when people would ask “What are you going to do with the interviews?” All we could say was that for educational purposes we had to document our record now or lose the chance to preserve so many poignant accounts, funny stories and touching tales told by exemplary educators. We knew these dedicated public servants might shortly, for reasons yet unknown, be leaving Brentwood for good.
     So, we decided to let time sort out the details. We began scheduling appointments. We asked questions and listened saving for generations the essence of what it meant to have been an educator or employed, in this large public school system during the second half of the 20th century. Brentwood remains an exemplar to all others; a diverse microcosm of America reflecting 124 districts on Long Island while simultaneously resembling thousands across the U.S. We’ve accomplished something here to be proud of. Whether we were interviewed or not, ours is a claim of service that few professionals in the State of New York or elsewhere have positioned themselves to share in the way we have.
     INITIALLY the practice of sitting with a subject for an hour and giving them a hundred percent focused attention seemed somewhat daunting to a number of friends and colleagues. So much so in fact that many declined our repeated invitations to speak with us as they left careers or retired from full employment. Despite all assurances that we were not about investigative journalism or invading privacy, they deferred. Now, twenty years after we began, some are saying they may be ready. “Better late than never” we say. However, to all among you who were willing to share not only your classroom experiences and personal stories, but precious memories from your lives along with your fondest hopes for the future, we say “Thanks”. Thanks for allowing us to continue the process by paying it forward as we share these interviews with the Brentwood community and countless professionals and researchers near and far. Through an acceptance of ROBS offer of collaboration with Archivist Dr. Geri Solomon and The Long Island Studies Institute at Hofstra University our History Project lives on in academia as well as in the collection of the Brentwood Public Library, thanks to Director, Thomas A. Tarantowicz.
   You can enjoy unlimited visits to www.robsny.org where you can watch and listen to segments from featured Interviews in the ROBS History Project Section on our Announcements Page each month. Return here to listen and learn again and again.

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