In his last day on the job as Town of North Hempstead supervisor before becoming Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Long Island advisor for Superstorm Sandy recovery on Friday, Jon Kaiman wore a gray suit and matching top hat and gloves to work.
The suit, with its giant lapels and thick black piping, appeared more than a bit retro for 2013, but Kaiman’s role that morning could be described as a bit unusual – acting in character as onetime Town Supervisor Philip J. Christ for the sixth-annual North Hempstead Day celebration.
Kaiman, who was also recently named by Cuomo as the chair of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, and other North Hempstead officials were in costume at the Mary Jane Davies gazebo in Manhasset, each portraying a different prominent figure in North Hempstead history for a crowd of elementary school students from Elizabeth M. Baker School in Great Neck and Drexel Avenue School in Westbury.
In his remarks as Christ, who served from 1907-17, Kaiman lauded North Hempstead’s diverse history as an inspiration that will aid the town’s development in the future.
“We’ve had our first female supervisor in the late May Newburger, we have our first-ever African American female in Councilwoman Viviana Russell, our first Iranian-American town board member in Anna Kaplan and we had our first Latino board member in former town Councilwoman Kitty Poons,” Kaiman said. “There are many things we can learn from our history, but we look confidently to the future, because you youngsters are the future.”
Council members and other North Hempstead officials took turns addressing the students, each imparting a different historical lesson upon those in attendance.
The festivities also included arts and crafts and other activities that helped teach the students about the town’s early history.
“When our leaders make decisions, they impact the lives of women and men alike,” said Russell, who portrayed socialite and women’s suffrage activist Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont. “So each of you should make it your duty to learn about government and the electoral process. Get involved.”
The Town of North Hempstead was originally part of the Township of Hempstead, but went its own way during the American Revolution over its opposition to British rule.
But it wasn’t until after World War I that the state Legislature officially acknowledged the town’s formation, marking North Hempstead’s official inception as 1784.
“I say we sign a resolution, on this 23rd day of September 1775, to break with the actions of the Town of Hempstead and declare our support of the revolutionary cause,” said Councilman Angelo Ferrara as Adrian Onderdonk, who served as North Hempstead’s first supervisor from 1784-86 and lived in what would one day become the Village of Flower Hill.
Town Clerk Leslie Gross portrayed Baker, a teacher and school board president who was heavily involved in Great Neck civic matters. Gross received a particularly loud applause from the students when she told them the school had been named after her.
“I want to remind all of you students to work hard in school and to visit your local library to learn more about the history of our town,” Gross said.
