Who Made a Difference in Mineola in 2012?

Mineola is filled with special people who make a difference, people who make an impact on our lives on a regular, sometimes daily, basis.

There are educators, business owners, volunteers, public officials, clergy members and others working to make Mineola a better place.

Mineola Patch is compiling a list of 10 local people who mattered in 2012. We need your help.

Nominate candidates in the comment section below, or write on our Facebook page.

Please give us the person’s name and the reason they belong on this list.

The list will run the last week in December as part of our Year in Review series.

Previous winners are not eligible this year.

If we can get you started, we’d like to include the following, so please vote or submit your own nominations in the comments:

• Utility workers for their cleanup after Hurricane Sandy.
• Mineola firefighters who were battered with both a hurricane, nor’Easter but still took in out-of-state crews sleeping in their trucks.
• Stephen Boyd and the Chaminade football team for breaking the drought for the Flyers against St. Anthony’s and bringing home a football championship.
• Ray Vaz, a Mineola veteran who made headlines after he finally received his medals after over 60 years of waiting.
• Harry Zapiti and Tony Lubrano for their fundraising efforts for leukemia research at the “Night on the Town” events.