The Star Award is given biannually to a member of the Roosevelt Island Community in recognition of their extraordinary service to the community. This years recipient, Wendy L. Hersh, is truly a “Star” in our eyes and that of the community. Read more about Wendy and her contributions below.

After a long and distinguished career in the retail sector Wendy suffered an accident which damaged her spine. She was physically unable to continue and had to rethink the direction of her life. She decided to study for a Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling which she obtained in 2002 and became a certified rehabilitation counselor. Eventually she also obtained her license as a mental health counselor. She started a new career providing services for individuals with disabilities, first at Bailey House, an agency assisting people diagnosed with HIV and AIDS, and then moving on to assist individuals with vocational rehabilitation services for the State of New York, helping them to obtain the skills and education needed to obtain employment.

Her accident and its aftermath had given her perspective on the difficulties experienced by people with disabilities. Her expertise made her a valuable asset to organizations such as the Roosevelt Island Senior Association. Soon Wendy found herself working with a number of island groups. Wendy facilitated a criminal justice reentry program in NY State and she ran a vocational program for Roosevelt Island teens.

Her daughter, Lauren, started in the MSTDA dance program. Wendy says that Lauren was tremendously shy and that dancing brought her gradually out of her shell. Wendy joined the MSTDA Board in 2007 and served for 7 years, coinciding with Nina Wintringham’s tenure as president. She helped set up the scholarship program with Barbara Parker. During that time, Lauren became a star of MSTDA’s dance and theatre program and Wendy could not have been more proud of her daughter or more grateful to MSTDA.

Jim Bates, who started the Roosevelt Island Disabled Association (RIDA), asked Wendy to provide her expertise to the organization which she gladly did. Little did she know that Jim intended her to run RIDA when he no longer could. In 2015, when Jim passed away, the baton passed to Wendy and she has been running RIDA ever since as its president. Her good friend Mary Coleman has been with her every step of the way and serves as Treasurer. RIDA has four other members on its board.

The list of services that RIDA provides to Roosevelt Island is astonishing. A partial list includes

• the weekly Food Pantry;
• home delivery of groceries to homebound people;
• educational events to raise awareness within the community of people with disabilities;
• workshops to build skills useful to people with disabilities;
• Friday night movies or other entertainment for members and seniors;
• Tuesday night Pilates with Barbara Parker that is tailored to clients with disabilities;
• helping people with disabilities to participate in most community events;
• cultural field trips for education and entertainment;
• trips to see friends who are in rehab facilities throughout the city;
• attending and bringing clients to the Abilities Expo to find new solutions;
• advisory resources for referral to local agencies;
• providing loaner equipment or donation of disability equipment; and
• a summer flea market to raise funds for RIDA.

The clients served by RIDA have a wide range of physical and mental disabilities. Some have several disabilities. It is because of Wendy’s breadth of knowledge across both areas and also of substance abuse issues that makes that possible. Wendy, like everyone on the RIDA board, is a volunteer. She does all this in addition to holding down a paid full-time job delivering services for New York State Education Department.

The Food Pantry started in response to the COVID pandemic. Wendy knew that many of the people she was in contact with were going to have trouble feeding themselves, either because of the difficulty of shopping for groceries under pandemic conditions or not being able to afford it. The Pantry started very modestly with distribution of of bags of food that were purchased by RIDA or donated. It grew steadily becoming more comprehensive and organized. Today it is almost like a grocery store with freezers and refrigerators to store perishables and a large assortment of nutritious food that is given out for free every Friday afternoon to the many Roosevelt Islanders that depend on it.

RIDA organized the Hope Memorial near Four Freedoms Park which celebrates the life of our first disabled US President, Franklin Roosevelt. RIDA then donated the memorial to RIOC. RIDA also partners each year with Public Safety and the Youth Center to collect and distribute toys to island children during the holidays. And each year RIDA buys and distributes backpacks and school supplies for the students on the island.

Wendy has always fostered cooperative relationships with other organizations both on and off the Island. She credits RIOC with helping in many ways and she always reciprocates when RIOC needs her help. She has partnered with MSTDA, Carter-Burden, Open Doors and Coler Hospital, iDig2Learn, the Girl Scouts, and PS/IS 217 among other organizations. Along the way, Wendy has had to learn how to navigate through the maze of grant-seeking. RIDA has obtained many grants from a dizzying array of agencies and foundations thanks to her efforts. 

For many years now Wendy has been an indispensable part of the Roosevelt Island Community. She has provided friendship, help, counseling, aid, and comfort to the people on this island who need it the most.