Meet the 90-year-old NYC woman who's been helping her community for 50 years
NEW YORK - A Kew Gardens local is being honored for serving 50 years on her community board.
CBS New York's Elle McLogan spoke with Sylvia Hack about her decades of service to her neighborhood.
90-year-old New Yorker celebrated for helping Queens community
This year marks a milestone for Kew Gardens resident Sylvia Hack — she has served on Community Board 9 for half a century. At Queens Borough Hall in April, board members honored Hack alongside elected officials, including Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and State Senator Leroy Comrie.
With meetings, research and community service projects, the 90-year-old keeps her to-do list full. At yearly trips to the garden center, she helps select flowers to beautify her neighborhood.
She remembers early days on the board, when members held meetings in their homes.
"In 1974, we had nothing. Just a lot of people who cared about their community and had the ability to try to do something, and that's what we did," she said.
Colleagues and friends admire her encyclopedic knowledge, attention to detail and fierce determination.
"She always likes to say, 'We need to make noise. We need to make intelligent noise,'" fellow board member Daniel Chu said.
In her five decades volunteering, she's helped uplift local business, save neighborhood trees and get a school built. But she refuses to take full credit.
"You can't do things like that by yourself," she said.
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