Brandenstein named Shelter Island Lions Club Citizen of the Year

Howard Brandenstein has been named the club’s Citizen of the Year, it was announced last week by James Read, president of the Shelter Island Lions Club.

“I was completely shocked,” Mr. Brandenstein said when Chief Read and fellow Lion Jack Monaghan visited him at his home to break the news. “I think you’ll find that I shouldn’t be getting this. I’m just not that spectacular.”

The award will be presented at a dinner in his honor on Friday, May 18 at the Pridwin Hotel.

The Shelter Island Lions Club, whose motto is “We Serve,” gave its first Citizenship Award in 1977 to honor local volunteers, not always Lions, who demonstrate consistent effort and service over an extended period on behalf of the Shelter Island community.

Mr. Brandenstein has been serving the Shelter Island community in a wide variety of organizations, even before he moved to the Island full-time in 1999 with his wife, Judy. A Lion for the past 10 years, Mr. Brandenstein was the president of the Board of Trustees of the Shelter Island Public Library, where he now serves as treasurer and member of the renovation committee.

“He is absolutely tireless when it comes to helping the library,” said Director Denise DiPaolo. “Besides being extremely dedicated, he is also extraordinarily generous. No task is too big or too small for him to handle.”

Among his many contributions was the computerization of the library in the early 1990s, a task he undertook while still living in Virginia and commuting to Shelter Island on weekends.

He has also logged long-time service on the board of the Shelter Island Historical Society, joining that group, he recently recalled, “at the request of Alice Fiske” in the late 1990s and remaining on the board until last year.

Many children will remember him as the driver of his vintage tractor with which he pulled the hay ride wagon at the Society’s annual Fall Harvest Festival.

He is a member of the vestry of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, where he is currently serving on the search committee for the parish’s priest. He has also labored as “cook and bottle washer” at countless Election Eve Ham Dinners, according to fellow parishioner Mark Cappellino. “Howard is simply a ‘get-it-done’ kind of person,” added Cindy Belt.

In addition, Mr. Brandenstein has been a volunteer driver for the Senior Services program, escorting his “clients,” as he refers to them, on Tuesday shopping trips for many years, as well as serving the Shelter Island Association as a trustee-at-large. In between these activities, he finds time for bridge and, in good weather, a croquet game on Sunday afternoons.