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FRE£?OBT MeSOHIAl USFtAHY RiSpari, M.Y. 11S20
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72nd Year, No. 31 Freeport, N.Y. 11520
The Community Newspaper
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Rachel Obergh, 9. of Wantagh. is saving horses.
She is not saving the kind ridden on a trail or at a ranch, however. She is saving ones that are years older, ride around in circles and are made out of wood.
"I'd ratlier ride a carousel - they don't flip you off," Rachel said of her preference. "I like the music." she added, a melodious bonus that does not come with riding a real horse.
Rachel created and is president of Pennies for Ponies, a program devoted to restoring old carousels and currently focusing on bringing back to life a historic, out-of-commission carousel from Nunley's.
Rachel has found adopters to donate and name 37 of the 42 horses hoping to be returned to their classic condition and ready for a new generation of riders on the carousel, to be set up on Museum Row in Garden City. At $2,000 each, horses have been adopted b)' schools all over the Island, including in Merrick and Baldwin, people who used to ride the carousel and even the Lecari family, the family of the original Nunley's owners, said Beth Obergh, Rachel's mother.
Additionally, literal pennies were collected. There were "people sending
pennies taped to envelopes," Mrs. Obergh said. Jars to collect pennies were set up all over Long Island, she added. every-where from in offices to ^ennis courts.
But that was not all. "Rachel went to all the school principals," Mrs. Obergh said. She even found adopters in local businesses and Long Island's hockey team.
"The Islanders wanted their logo on the horse," Rachel said.
The Progressive School of Long Island in Merrick, which Rachel attends during the year, also adopted a horse. At Rachel's selection, they adopted the carousel's lead horse, number 40 on Rachel's list, who she appropriately named "Penny."
Rachel decided to create the program after she had seen the old Nunley's carousel, but Pennies for Ponies might not have been created at all if not for Rachel's school, Mrs. Obergh said.
"They're really good at community service," Mrs. Obergh said. The Progressive School has a community
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service requirement for its students. Rachel had just finished collecting 100 coats for 100 kids as one project, and was looking for another.
"The tinung was right," Mrs. Obergh said. Rachel's carousel-inspired idea was ready and able to take off, but she had no idea to what extent.
"I saw the horses were in storage 10 years. I wanted to ride it some day," Rachel quipped.
Rachel started Pennies for Ponies when she was in second grade - she is now going into fourth. In the time that the program has been running, Rachel has gone to a press conference in Oyster
Bay, been in USA Today, the Sunday edition of the New York Times and the front page of Google News, she said. She also won a regional Kohl's Kids Who Care Scholarship.
Pennies for Ponies brought Rachel into a world of politics completely foreign to a vast majority of 9-year-olds. She made allies with county Legislator Dave Denenberg and County Executive Tom Suozzi, and even once had Mr. Suozzi coordinating with her schedule, Mrs. Obergh said.
Pennies for Ponies also put Rachel in contact with a living musical legend -Billy Joel, continued on page 2
Object Description
| Rating | |
| Title | The-Leader_2007-08-02 |
| Subject | Newspaper |
| Description | This is a Newspaper distributed locally within the Village of Freeport and Baldwin. |
| Creator | Linda Toscano |
| Publisher | L & M Publications, Inc. |
| Contributors | Scanned by Imaging & Microfilm Access, Inc. (Bohemia, NY 11716) |
| Date | 2007 |
| Type | Periodical |
| Format | PDF; TIFF |
| Source | Freeport Memorial Library |
| Language | English |
| Coverage | United States |
| Rights | This digital image may be freely used for educational uses, as long as it is not altered in any way. No commercial reproduction or distribution of this image is permitted without written permission of the Freeport Memorial Library, 144 W. Merrick Road, Freeport, NY 11520 or email: frreference@freeportlibrary.info |
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