‘Most Long Islanders remember our flagship department store in Westbury. I was 10 years old on opening day and I remember cutting the ribbon!’

Old Westbury

“I feel like it’s an honor to carry on the Fortunoff name. My grandparents worked hard to create their family business 100 years ago, and my parents spent their lives expanding it. My grandparents actually started by selling pots and pans, and my parents branched out into home goods and jewelry. My mother, in particular, was a jewelry expert, and she would take my sister Ruth and I around the world with her to meet different jewelry vendors. When my mother got older, Ruth and I took over for her. I have spent most of my career buying, designing settings for, and selling diamond, pearl and gemstone jewelry.

“Most Long Islanders remember our flagship department store in Westbury. I was 10 years old on opening day and I remember cutting the ribbon! It was wonderful to grow up in the store. My grandfather had an office on the third floor, and he specialized in lampshades well into his 80s. My grandmother, who had an office on the second floor, continued to focus on kitchen wares. My father dealt primarily with silverware, and my cousins purchased crystal goods for the store and would happily show me all the new acquisitions. My uncles and aunts specialized in furniture, which the store became quite well known for.

Throughout the 1980s, we were known for big bold jewelry as well as classic art deco looks, which never seem to go out of style.

“Three generations of our extended family were at that store several days a week. The busiest time of the year was the before Christmas, but it was also the most fun because it was bustling, which was exciting. We stayed open on Christmas Eve, and we always had a few last-minute shoppers stop in! We also had events where celebrities came to the store. We even developed jewelry lines for ice skaters and tennis players. Throughout the 1980s, we were known for big bold jewelry as well as classic art deco looks, which never seem to go out of style. In 2005, my grandparents sold the company, but I stayed on as an employee who specialized in the jewelry section, which is something I had been doing since I was 14.

“Ultimately, the store couldn’t survive the recession of 2008 and went into liquidation. The day the store closed in May of 2009 was very sad. Selling online is very different from selling in a store, but I also maintain an office in case clients want a piece of jewelry restored or customized.”

Interviewed by Meagan Meehan

‘I was always drawn to help the poor, moved with compassion.’

Medford

“I was born on the island of Grenada and came here when I was 16 or 17 years old, wanting to make a better life. My mom was already here, and my siblings eventually came. I was always drawn to help the poor, moved with compassion. Even as a 9-year-old, I would cook for a family who didn’t have food.

“That followed me here to the U.S. I work in communities where they lack resources. I’ve gone to Ghana, and I’ve dug several wells and started building a school there. When I went to some of the villages and saw the conditions, the filthy water they were drinking, I couldn’t walk away and do nothing. People were contracting diseases from drinking that water. I used my life savings to pay for wells before I started what’s now called Adu Djan Water around 2011.

“Adu-Djan is my married name. My husband is Ghanian, and we met here after I started going to Ghana. Abesim is a village in Ghana that has a school made from mud. The chief of the village said to me, ‘We have been praying for you to come for years.’ When I sat in the school, the kids told me they were afraid to come in because the thatched roof would allow snakes in. If it rained, it damages the building. I told them I would build a school. At the time, I didn’t have the money; I didn’t know where the money was going to come from. But I knew I wanted to provide the opportunity for them to get a safe education. That’s really been my driving force. I go to Ghana as often as I can. We’ve also provided school supplies, food. The lives of some of these kids are so hard. Whenever I get a call that says, ‘I have no food for the kids for this week,’ I have to somehow figure out a way to get the money. I can’t imagine going to school not having breakfast, not having lunch, maybe getting something for dinner.

“I’m planning a trip next year, and hopefully I can start drilling more wells because I have been getting so many requests. When I visited, there were song lyrics written, ‘There shall be showers of blessings.’ I was wondering, ‘How can anyone be hopeful?’ But they were. I wanted to be that beacon of hope for them, to see the gratitude on their faces. It touched me so deeply, so I knew this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

I was born to be in service to others, whether it’s helping them realize their full potential, or providing food, water or school, or providing spiritual support.

“I work for United Way of Long Island, their YouthBuild program for young adults 16-24, teaching them some type of skill to make them employable.

“Some have high school degrees, some don’t, and they’re low income. I’m also a mentor for Moxxie Mentoring, a foundation that pairs young women with female mentors as they grow professionally. They’re in college, they have aspirations and different needs than people in Ghana. I was born to be in service to others, whether it’s helping them realize their full potential, or providing food, water or school, or providing spiritual support. Almost all the work I’ve done everywhere I’ve gone in the world, young people are drawn to me. I’m glad because I want to be able to make an impression on them so they understand they’re loved, they’re needed, they’re valued, there’s potential in them and they can be successful.

“I wrote a book, ‘Prayer That Really Works,’ in 2016 because I wanted to provide an answer for people who I felt were struggling with getting their prayer answered. I was inspired to write it as an answer to all the people who have asked me, ‘Why isn’t my prayer being answered?’ I wanted to provide something for them in those times of doubt, something they can read and be empowered to grow their faith. My faith in God is what enables me to do all that I do without getting tired, without feeling the effects; it’s really what grounds me.

“This could be draining spiritually, but I never look at the work as me doing it. I look at the work as God doing it through me. Until recently, I was an assistant minister at my church in the Bronx, but they moved to New Jersey. What I do now is I minister wherever I’m needed. I get a call from a church that is starting women’s ministry, asking me to come be a speaker. I travel a lot and I do ministry in a lot of countries – Haiti, Jamaica, India. Everything is kind of intertwined. If I go for ministry and someone says to me, ‘We need a well or we need food,’ I do all of that. I’m representing God to many people, but also showing them his love by providing them those physical things that they need, providing those things that we in the Western world take for granted.”

Interviewed by Rachel O’Brien – Morano

‘We hope to continue feeding anyone who comes to the farm stand.’

Sea Cliff

“During COVID, we opened our farm stand, and all vegetables were free. We did it in order to help support our neighbors who may have lost work during that time period. Some older folks looked like they were having a hard time, and we loaded them up with vegetables, too. It was also done to spread some cheer during a very difficult time. We are neighbors feeding neighbors.

The farm started when we moved to Sea Cliff in 1989, but it was only a vegetable garden. We both worked, so there was only so much we could do. The garden slowly expanded over the years. We began to plant fruit — dwarf apple, cherry and berry trees — and cultivated a big herb garden. As the internet began to offer more information on intensive gardening, we started growing our own food.

We share our food and our knowledge on how to grow with anyone interested.

“One summer, about 12 years ago, we had a garage sale. We were leaving the next day on vacation and decided to sell the rest of the vegetables, which would only go bad while we were away. All the produce was purchased immediately and the farm stand was born!

“We sell organic vegetables and herbs. We do not sell any of our berries, as we share these with the birds. One of our goals is to help others grow their own food in their yards.

“Any contribution of fresh organic vegetables and herbs generated by individuals will be the beginning of their journey toward growing their own food and becoming just a little more self-sufficient. Food is becoming increasingly more expensive and of poor quality due to the fertilizers and insecticides that are used.

“I believe health begins with the conditions we grow our food in, which includes good, uncontaminated soil, and with an organic methodology to try and control pests and fungus.

“Currently, we are expanding the edible sections as we think food is going to get really expensive. All money generated from the farm stand is plowed back into the micro-farm, and that helps to offset the cost. One year, we actually broke even!

“We hope to continue feeding anyone who comes to the farm stand. If conditions surface again that require it, we will go back to feeding our neighbors for free. We share our food and our knowledge on how to grow with anyone interested. We are happy to help the community!”

Interviewed by Saul Schachter

‘I had been arrested so many times that when I would inevitably end up back at jail, the corrections officers would say to me, “Welcome home…”’

Glen Cove

“I started drinking when I was 12 years old and was even thrown out of sleepaway camp for getting drunk. I got into hard drugs after my father passed away when I was 18.

“By 24, I was a full-blown drug user, including smoking crack and shooting heroin intravenously. I have been in and out of rehab since I was 25, and usually never even made it past the 28-day period.

“I had been arrested so many times that when I would inevitably end up back at jail, the corrections officers would say to me, ‘Welcome home, Barone.’ But I discovered I had guardian angels, starting with my mother.

“One day, I received a card from her, and it was at that moment that I decided to turn my life around. She wrote that she loved me, enclosed a picture of my daughter, and $100.

“After all I put her through, she still had my back — and still does today. After I got out, my mother made a phone call to Lisa Cohen of Living Water For Women, an organization that helps women like me, who I knew from both attending her groups in the jail, and from previous attempts to sober up years earlier.

“Lisa sent her wonderful house manager, Kelly Cavanaugh, to pick me up at the jail on my release date. I was ready to do whatever was asked of me in order to become a responsible, mature, independent woman.

“Through Living Water, I learned how to be a human being again, how to just live like a normal person in a house with chores and responsibility, and how to be around other people. I had been in the streets so long that I didn’t know how to talk to people anymore.

“After a few months, I was able to get a job at a lumber company. I am so grateful that I get to go to work every day and have been blessed to be working all through the pandemic.

“I am currently trying to obtain grants to enable me to go back to school to become, first, a peer advocate, then a drug counselor or therapist. The best advice I can give to other women in my former position is just to dream big, write down your goals and work towards them every day. And take suggestions from people who know better, because if your way isn’t working, find another way!”

Interviewed by Saul Schachter

‘I always felt the spirituality in the martial arts. When I was training, it just went through me in that spiritual way. And it was a great connection for me.’

Kings Park

“There’s a lot of history in my life. It’s like 50 years of martial arts, so a tremendous amount of growth and change over the years. I was in Okinawa [Japan] four times. The last one was an invitation from the Okinawan government in 2019 to represent Isshin-Ryu karate and the USA on a high-level black belt tour. So that was an amazing thing. I wasn’t sure I could handle it, but I did. And it was an awesome trip.

“I was the only female and the highest ranking one in my group — and the oldest one in my group, ha-ha. The tour took us to walking the path of the old masters, all the founders of the different styles of martial arts.

“One of the best days for me was when we went to a martial arts museum in Naha, and I brought my first book with me — which took me 20 years to write, by the way. Years prior, Isshin-Ryu master Angi Uezu had sent me some pictures of older masters, his family and old ‘Okinawa Times.’’ And he said, ‘Please make a book.’ And I thought, ‘I don’t know what to do with that.’ While I was writing the book, I went to look for something else, and the photos fell out of the bookshelf right into my hand. It’s as if they said, ‘We belong in your book.’

“The masters, when they saw it, got so excited about the photos that went in the back of the book. The first story I ever wrote that was published was for a magazine called TaeKwonDo Times. This is when I was experiencing the spiritual aspect of the martial arts very strongly, and I’m reading ‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull.’

“So, my story was called ‘The Limitless Spirit of the Martial Arts.’ And I kept trying to get a picture with a rising sun and a seagull across it. I sent them the little one-page story, and when it came out, on one side of the paper was my story, the sun, seagull, and on the other side of the page was a full picture of me. The whole page! This magazine profiled Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, all the top guys.

“Normal people get a little square in the corner. That was amazing. That’s why the book became ‘The Limitless Spirit of the Martial Arts.’ I always felt the spirituality in the martial arts. When I was training, it just went through me in that spiritual way. And it was a great connection for me.”

I want to tell people to follow their heart. Be open to possibilities. We never know where life will lead!

“In 1972, after my second baby was born, I joined a health club in Smithtown. I really didn’t care about exercises, ha-ha, but they did have a self-defense program. It was so much fun. When they disbanded that program, my friend and I had a gentleman come to the house and teach us tae kwon do in my living room, which really piqued my interest.

“And because he was gentle in his approach, it didn’t turn me off to martial arts. But then he couldn’t teach anymore. So I started to look for a real dojo, and all the dojos were, ‘No, we don’t want women. You could take a self-defense class, but I’m not teaching you karate.’ That was the mentality in that time. I finally found somebody with a program who was teaching Isshin-Ryu, which used a vertical punch instead of a corkscrew, and that made all the difference to me. I fell in love with it. That’s how I discovered my sensei, Nick Adler.

“So, by 1974, I was with my sensei’s dojo. He didn’t care if you were a man or a woman. You train the same way. You work just as hard. My goal was to be a brown belt and be able to defend myself. But somewhere along the line I kept training, became a black belt, and then it continued with different levels.

“In 1978, sensei and I opened Smithtown Karate Academy together. It was hard because I never planned to teach or own a school, but I was able to manage to get through it. I had to learn confidence. The only goal that I had after teaching was sandan, which is a third-degree black belt and in the U.S. a teaching level. And since I was teaching, I wanted to be a sandan. And that happened when I won first place in the all-men’s weapons division — they didn’t have it for women — at my sensei’s teacher Don Nagle’s tournament.

“So, I had two special people there when I got that. I had a lot of insecurities growing up and was not confident. And what shocked me is, 10 years ago, I went to visit my best friend that I grew up with, and she pulled out her high school journal and we went over it. She had put under my name, ‘Most Likely to Succeed.’. I’m like, ‘You saw that then? I never saw any of that.’ I want to tell people to follow their heart. Be open to possibilities. We never know where life will lead!”

Interviewed by Jay Max