🍦 Bayport's Berry Fresh: The Yearbook Dream That Came True

🏥 A $34 Million Home Away From Home Rises at Stony Brook

👩‍🏫 Nassau BOCES Wants You: Hiring Event Hits Westbury

🕹️ Retro Gaming Takes Over Garden City This Weekend

There's a specific kind of joy in watching someone build the exact thing they wrote down as a kid and actually pull it off. That's Berry Fresh in a sentence. Owner Joanne Jennings put her goal in her high school yearbook back in 1993: own an ice cream store and be happy. Three decades, a corporate career, and one very long detour later, she's living it.

Joanne worked at a Carvel for three years in high school, where she and her coworker Andrew used to joke about opening their own ice cream store someday, complete with a light up floor and a drive thru window. Life took her into an office job for twenty something years instead, until she got laid off, found work at an ice cream store, tried to buy it, watched that deal fall through, and then bought her own store instead. In 2017 Berry Fresh was born, and the seed planted back in 1993 finally grew into something real.

Because she isn't tied to a franchise, Joanne fills every inch of her freezers with whatever she wants. Self-serve frozen yogurt is the backbone, but she's built out acai bowls and specialty acai shakes in flavors like peanut butter and pineapple honey, Hershey's ice cream in 20 flavors, Mini Melts, custom ice cream and yogurt cakes, and every character pop and novelty a kid could ask for. When she bought the store, the freezer was completely empty. She's spent years filling it back up, one idea at a time.

Every Tuesday, Berry Fresh runs 2 For Tuesday, buy one get one free, and it turns the shop into standing room only. It's less a promotion and more a neighborhood ritual at this point. Joanne treats her regulars the same way. Some of them have their exact order laminated on the wall, and she keeps loyalty cards behind the counter for the customers who always lose theirs. That's the kind of place this is, built around the people who keep coming back, not just the ones walking in for the first time.

This year Berry Fresh added a juice bar, four juices and three shots, which has pulled in the early morning crowd from the yoga, Pilates, and barre studios that share the shopping center. Keep an eye out for the annual kindness rocks painting event too, where Joanne sets up paint and rocks for kids and adults alike to decorate. No date locked in yet, but it's coming in the next few weeks.

Follow along on Instagram or Facebook where she posts nearly every day and you'll get the fullest picture of what's in the freezer this week.

Berry Fresh is proof that the goal you write down at seventeen doesn't have to stay a yearbook footnote. Sometimes it just takes the long way to get there.

Find them on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/berry_fresh/?hl=en and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BerryFreshDesserts/

The land is cleared, the foundation walls are poured, and a brand new Ronald McDonald House is officially rising out of the ground at Stony Brook Children's Hospital. Construction kicked off this month on the $34 million project, and Aurora Contractors out of Ronkonkoma is leading the build.

Once finished in fall 2027, the House will offer 30 private bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms for families whose children are being treated at the hospital, plus a media center, interactive playrooms, community kitchens, a fitness center and a meditation room. Ronald McDonald House staff and volunteers will keep the pantries stocked and meals coming for families staying there.

For any parent who has spent a night sleeping in a hospital chair, the value of this is obvious. The new House will let families stay together and close to their kids during some of the hardest weeks of their lives, instead of choosing between a long commute home and a waiting room couch. Fall 2027 is the target, and Long Island will be watching it rise.

👉 Read more: LongIsland.com

If you've been thinking about a career change into education, today's your day. Nassau BOCES is holding a hiring event this afternoon, Tuesday August 4, from 1 to 6 p.m. at Career Preparatory High School, 111 Cantiague Rock Road in Westbury. Head to the gym at the rear of the building.

The agency is looking to fill teacher aide positions, general special education teacher roles, permanent substitute teachers, teachers of the deaf, and speech and hearing teachers, all across programs in Nassau County. Pre registering at nassauboces.org/recruitment-event gets you priority, but walk ins are welcome too.

Education jobs across Long Island have been tough to fill, so if you or someone you know has been circling this kind of work, this is about as low pressure an entry point as it gets. Worst case, you learn something. Best case, you walk out with a new career.

👉 Read more: LI Herald

Dust off the Game Boy, because the Long Island Retro Gaming Expo is back at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, running Friday August 7 through Sunday August 9. It's three floors of arcades, consoles and PC gaming history under one roof.

This year's expo celebrates 30 years of the Nintendo 64, alongside vendors, tournaments, panels and exhibits covering more than 50 years of video game history. Show hours run Friday 3 to 9 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the vendor marketplace open the whole time. Weekend and single day passes are both available, and parking is free.

Whether you grew up on Pac-Man or you're introducing your own kids to a controller with a cord, this is the kind of weekend that turns strangers into old friends over a shared high score.

👉 Read more: LI Retro Gaming Expo

Long Island Local Pulse is inviting local businesses and organizations to be featured in its growing community newsletter.

The platform highlights local news, events and community stories, providing businesses with an opportunity to reach a highly engaged local audience and showcase what they offer.

From restaurants and shops to services and community groups, all are encouraged to participate and share their story with readers across Long Island. Don’t own a business? That’s ok… Know of one that should be featured?

Those interested in being featured can reach out to learn more about available opportunities and upcoming editions. Click the button below to feature your business or send an email to [email protected] with your business details and we’ll reach out!