FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM MAY 27, 2021 • THE QUEENS COURIER 49
Victoria’s
SECRETS
Victoria
SCHNEPSYUNIS
vschneps@gmail.com
tweet me @vschneps
A week of celebrations
What a week!
I delightedly celebrated
seeing my old
friend Geraldo Rivera once
again support the group I founded,
relished my grandson’s graduation
from law school at NYU
and then had the bittersweet celebration
of my grandchildren’s
birthdays on the day of my late
daughter Lara’s birthday, too!
Th e week began and ended
with memories of my daughter
Lara, who was born on May
23. Lara was brain damaged at
birth, but taught me more than
any person on Earth.
She was developmentally
a 3-month-old and her birth
pushed me into a world of helping
her — hoping fi rst for a
cure and then for care. My late
husband and I dreamed that a
place on Staten Island called
Willowbrook State School
with a newly built infant rehabilitation
program for babies
would off er hope. It did for a
short time.
I lived in a high-rise community
with other young
women who warmly said
to me, “Th ere but for the
grace of God go I. How can
I help you, Vicki?”
And so in my living
room we founded WORC
(Women’s Organization for
Retarded Children). Th e name
has changed to Life’s WORC
and the organization provides
help and hope to thousands of
children like Lara.
Going back to the early 1970s,
we sent busloads of volunteers to
Willowbrook and raised money
for the 5,400 people living there.
Within a year of Lara being at
Willowbrook, Governor Nelson
Rockefeller slashed the funding
for the school and the helpless
people living there were in
crisis due to the lack of staff to
care for their needs. Aft er all, my
Lara had to be fed, diapered and
bathed, needing total care.
My many volunteers and I
became marchers and picketers
demanding the return of the
funds. But no one was listening
until a cub reporter named
Geraldo Rivera brought his passion
and power of the press to
our cause through his brilliant
TV coverage that shamed
and outraged the
city.
Sean Hannity and Geraldo Rivera kicked offff the 33rd
Annual Geraldo Rivera Golf Classic, joined by honorees
Peter Klein, E. Christopher Murray, Janet Koch, Lynne
Koufakis, and Erica Rivera.
My late husband Murray
Schneps believed that only a federal
class action lawsuit could
save our Lara and her fellow residents.
Th anks to Geraldo’s persistent
and persuasive coverage,
the parents of the people living
at Willowbrook agreed to sign
on to the litigation.
Th e court battle was won and
Lara and her “friends” were now
provided with funds to move
into small group homes with day
programs to help with rehabilitation
opportunities.
Today, networks of organizations
allow others like Lara to
live a life of dignity and the ability
to be the most they can be.
Lara led me on a path that I
would never have imagined for
myself and Geraldo inspired
me to want to be in the
news business — that’s
how I started my fi rst
newspaper on the same
sofa as I started Life’s
WORC.
It made my heart
sing on Monday when
I saw Geraldo and his
beautiful wife Erica
and their friend Sean
Hannity kick off the
33rd Annual Geraldo
Rivera Golf Classic
at the Old Westbury
Golf and Country Club.
For almost 50 years now,
Geraldo has supported Life’s
WORC in their eff orts to provide
a quality of life
to people who desperately
need it as do
their families.
Yes, Lara, your
infl uence has lived
on beyond the years
God gave you on this
Earth. Happy birthday,
my beloved.
But the spotlight
for the rest of the
week was on my
grandchildren and
their celebrations.
My beloved, late
husband Stu Yunis
would have been
beaming with pride
at his strapping,
brilliant grandson
Zach’s graduation
from law school at
NYU, as his dad Jim
Broner did a few
decades before.
It was a comfortable celebration
in the Broner home, with all
of us watching the virtual graduation
ceremony on the 60-inch
TV in the living room. We toasted
with champagne as Zach’s
photo crossed in front of us.
Th anks to the TV clicker, we
stopped the graduation and took
multiple photos of him on screen
and in person! What joy!
Later in the week my 9-yearold
granddaughter Addy and
12-year-old granddaughter
Morgan shared their birthdays
and we relished our Chinese
food at our family dinner
celebration.
What a way to end a wonderful
week! How grateful I am!
Zach’s virtual graduation
celebration was still great!
Zach at his graduation dinner
at Peter Luger Steak House.
Having a blast celebrating
Morgan and Addy’s birthdays!
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