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PWEF Celebrates Lee Aschenbrenner Day

Port Washington Education Foundation honors Lee Aschenbrenner, a devoted volunteer and educator who passed away last August, with a special program at the library.

The Port Washington Education Foundation (PWEF) celebrated Lee Aschenbrenner Day at the Port Washington Public Library this week, honoring a beloved volunteer and educator who devoted himself to the children of Port Washington.

PWEF dedicated the afternoon's program to Aschenbrenner, a former principal at Flower Hill, before it closed, and Manorhaven elementary schools, and a devoted volunteer at PWEF's Education Support Center, who passed away in August 2009. 

"Anything to do with children and education, he was a leader, and we wanted to honor him," said Ellen Fox, the foundation's vice president of special projects. 

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Fox said Aschenbrenner helped out at the center in many ways, "from pouring apple juice to taking students to the bathroom, and helping with their homework." The Education Support Center is run after school for third-graders and with many ESL students it focuses on literacy and language arts. The center provides homework help and other enrichment programs for students, according to Fox.

In addition to his work with PWEF and the Port Washington School District, Aschenbrenner was also a volunteer at St. Francis Hospital and Port Washington Community Chest, which awarded him and his wife, Beatrice, its Citizen of the Year Award in 2007. "Lee's name could have been Mr. Port Washington," Fox said.

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As part of the program, Fox presented a plaque designed by the center's children in honor of Aschenbrenner to Nancy Curtin, the director of the Port Washington Public Library. The plaque will be displayed in the children's room; Aschenbrenner's family also received one.

The afternoon's activities also included a performance by the center's third-graders, singing a song about Port Washington written by Doreen Gamell, the center's students displaying books they wrote and illustrated and reading their stories to the attendees, and a presentation by storyteller Elise May.

Inspired by the students' books, May read a book she wrote and illustrated about Aschenbrenner called "Believe in Yourself." The book is dedicated to his family. After reading the book, May played a special version of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune focusing on Mr. A, as his students always called him. Students also received buttons decorated with Aschenbrenner's favorite slogan: "Believe In Yourself." Continuing with that theme, May finished her presentation with a song called "Believe in Yourself," accompanied by her daughter on the piano.

"This was a terrific, terrific program," said Aschenbrenner's daughter Karen Aschenbrenner Rosenthal. "Nothing made my father happier than working with the children of Port Washington and teaching them to be the best that they could be ... and it's working."

The Port Washington Education Foundation, founded in 2005, also celebrated its fifth year in operation at the event. The foundation was created to "to support initiatives that are beyond basic educational needs and to enhance and expand educational opportunities for all students in the Port Washington public school district," according to its Web site.

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