🧹 Y.E.V. Cleaning Service: The Single Mom Building a Future One Deep Clean at a Time

🎊 Port Jefferson's Greek Festival Returns for Its 65th Year

🦅 Nassau Police Rescue an Injured Osprey in North Hills

🚒 Oceanside Hosts the Nassau County Firefighters Association Parade

You can tell inside of thirty seconds whether somebody cleaned your house or just straightened it. Ellie is the other kind. She's on her knees with her hands on the floor, she's got a brush on your light switches, and she's working at a stain on the wall that most people would have decided was permanent.

She wanted to be a doctor. She loves the medical field, but as a single mom she couldn't disappear into school for years without support, so she picked the fastest honest route to a stable income for her daughter and started the cleaning service in 2021. She's 30 now, a mother of two, working three jobs, going to school full time, and on her way to becoming a nurse practitioner. Somewhere in the middle of that she gives away a free two hour cleaning every month to veterans, postpartum moms, expectant mothers, and anyone dealing with a health or mobility issue. As a Christian she says kindness comes first, and that's her way of putting it into practice.

Every new client starts with a deep clean, which means top to bottom: vents, ceiling fans, moldings, baseboards, doors, light switches, floors, walls, anything with a stain that can be lifted. After that it's maintenance weekly or every other week. She'll steer you away from monthly, because at that interval you're just paying for another deep clean. She works with a team of two, and she is personally there for every initial clean, because that's where trust gets built. On maintenance visits she's in and out as her schedule allows and checking in constantly with photos, making sure every corner got scrubbed.

Deep cleans start at $275 and run to $375 or $475 depending on the size of the house, with maintenance cleanings between $150 and $250. Right now she has promotional rates with a team of two: two hours for $180, three hours for $250, four hours for $350, and five hours for $450. What she doesn't do is nickel and dime. There's no ten dollars extra for this and fifteen for that. She'd rather you call, tell her your budget, and let her figure out how to make it work.

Call or text her at (631) 432-2823. She works overnight shifts on weekends, so she is almost always reachable.

Join us in welcoming Y.E.V. Cleaning Service to the neighborhood spotlight, run by someone juggling more than most of us could carry who still blocks out two free hours a month for people who need them.

Four days of Greek food, music, dancing, carnival rides and fireworks are landing in Port Jefferson this week as the Greek Orthodox Church of the Assumption celebrates its 65th annual Greek Festival, running Thursday, August 20 through Sunday, August 23 at 430 Sheep Pasture Road. The festival grew out of the church's celebration of the Feast of the Assumption, which falls on August 15, and has expanded over the decades from a small parish picnic into one of the largest community gatherings on Long Island.

Everything on the menu is homemade by church volunteers, from gyros and souvlaki to spanakopita and loukoumades, served out of both an indoor and outdoor kitchen with room for hundreds to sit and eat. Saturday night brings a performance from St. John's Hellenic Dancers, and fireworks light up the sky Friday and Saturday at dusk. There are also carnival rides, games, church tours and vendors, plus the festival's biggest fundraiser: an annual raffle with 200 prizes, including five cars and a motorcycle, drawn Sunday at 7 p.m.

Admission is $2, with kids getting in free, and a shuttle will run from Ward Melville High School for anyone who wants to skip the parking hunt. As Father Louis Nicholas put it, the festival is built around filotimo, the Greek concept of hospitality, and every visitor gets folded into the family for the weekend.

👉 Read more: TBR News Media

Sixth Precinct officers had an unusual call last Thursday afternoon: a 911 report of an injured bird at 99 South Service Road in North Hills. What they found was a young osprey that had tumbled out of its nest and couldn't fly. Officers were able to safely secure the bird without further injury.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation was brought in, and the osprey was handed off to a New York State and federally licensed wildlife rehabilitator for treatment. Once it heals up, it will be released back into the wild. Ospreys are a federally protected species, and Long Island is home to roughly 2,000 breeding pairs, so a rescue like this one matters more than it might seem.

It's a small story, but a nice reminder of the wildlife sharing our neighborhoods, and of the officers who take the time to look out for it.

👉 Read more: LongIsland.com

Oceanside rolled out the red carpet, or in this case, the fire hoses, for the Nassau County Firefighters Association Parade over the weekend. Roughly 150 firefighters from 25 departments across the county marched down Long Beach Road as part of a celebration honoring the nation's 250th anniversary, with a color guard carrying 70 American flags representing every fire department in Nassau.

The day went well beyond the marching, with food vendors, children's activities, community groups tabling along the route, a concert and fireworks capping off the evening. At its heart, organizers said, the parade is a chance to say thank you to Nassau's volunteer fire service and the residents who show up to support them year after year.

It's the kind of event that only works because so many people, in and out of uniform, decide it's worth showing up for. Oceanside clearly agreed.

👉 Read more: Herald Community Newspapers

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