BOO! Sorry for the jump-scare, dear readers, but it is a special Halloween edition of your favorite innovation newsletter – and to help set the mood, for your background listening pleasure, please welcome immortal ghouls Michael Jackson and Vincent Price!
It’s also Friday and the end of another busy workweek (not to mention the entire month of October). Before we battle demons, deal with trick-or-treaters and otherwise dive into our well-earned weekend, let’s review the week in innovation (and sneak one of those fun-sized Almond Joys … go ahead, nobody’s looking).
Good save: However you do it, it’s important to sock away some cash for later.
Not dead yet: The celebration of All Hallows’ Eve, of course, means today is Oct. 31 – which this year also marks the end of Innovate Long Island’s collaboration with LocaLI Bred, the brilliant gift-box creators who pack one-of-a-kind baskets with the very best made-on-Long Island foods, crafts and merch.
Read on to learn everything you need to know about LocaLI Bred – including the Innovate Long Island code for discounts on your bulk corporate orders. (But only through midnight tonight, so get going!)
Savings (the best for first): With Halloween afoot – not only in the United States, but in Canada, Mexico, England and many other countries around the globe, in one form or another – other Oct. 31 observances are understandably light. The best we could find is World Savings Day, all about the importance of thrifty spending and rainy-day funds.
It’s also National Magic Day (commemorating the Halloween Day death of master illusionist Harry Houdini in 1926) and National Knock Knock Joke Day (encouraging trick-or-treaters to bring the funny). As for today’s menu, like we said before – there are bags and bags of candy about. Figure it out.
Familiar theme: Less funny, more funny business, was the admittance of the Nevada Territory as the 36th State of the Union on this date in 1864 – a rush job pushed through just days before the Presidential election, giving President Abraham Lincoln’s re-election bid three additional electoral votes and locking up the Republican Party’s House and Senate majorities.
Familiar name: Speaking of Honest Abe, the Lincoln Highway – the first paved coast-to-coast U.S. highway, running from New York City’s Times Square to San Francisco’s Lincoln Park – was officially dedicated on Oct. 31, 1913.
Stone-faced: Mount Rushmore depicts the best of the best.
Familiar faces: America’s greatest president would pop up again 84 years ago today, when South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore National Memorial – featuring the giant, chiseled facades of Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt – was announced as “complete.”
Stripes: The “zebra crossing” – the unmistakable striped crosswalks protecting pedestrians around the globe – became a thing on this date in 1951, when the first entered service in the English Town of Slough, just west of London.
And stars: And it was Oct. 31, 1992, when the Vatican officially reversed its position on Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei’s Copernicus-approved, long-demonized heliocentric theories and ceremoniously welcomed the iconic mathematician and philosopher back into the Catholic Church.
While it took the church 400 years to admit its dogmatic dedication to geocentricism was wrong – and the Earth actually does revolve around the Sun – Galileo, who spent the last decade of his life under house arrest, bent but never broke.
You go, girl: American educator and humanitarian Juliette Gordon Low (1860-1927) – the trailblazing, nearly-deaf activist remembered affectionately as “Daisy,” the beloved founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA – would be 165 years old today.
Command decision: Collins orbited the Moon but never set foot on its surface.
Also born on Oct. 31 were English poet John Keats (1795-1821), who lived only 25 years but lives on as a Romantic Era standout; English physicist and chemist Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (1828-1914), a master 19th Century innovator who invented an early electric lightbulb and significantly advanced the art of photography with the dry photographic plate; Indian American physicist Narinder Singh Kapany (1926-2020), the often-overlooked “Father of Fiber Optics”; American astronaut Michael Collins (1930-2021), the command module pilot of the historic Apollo 11 moon-landing mission; and American journalist, commentator and former national evening news anchor Dan Rather (born 1931), still calling it like he sees it.
Return of the king: And take a bow, Sir Peter Robert Jackson! The New Zealand filmmaker, producer and screenwriter – known best for his long stays in Middle Earth across two epic trilogies (with more on the way) – turns 64 today.
Send your best to the larger-than-life filmmaker at editor@innovateli.com, where our fellowship begins with your news tips – and your calendar events always make for an interesting (if unexpected) journey.
About our sponsor: LocaLI Bred makes holiday gifting easy and meaningful. We curate gift boxes filled with products from Long Island’s best small businesses and local makers. Whether you’re thanking employees, clients or partners, our corporate gifting boxes offer special pricing and personalized service to help your business give with impact this holiday season. Use code innovateli5 for 5 percent off corporate orders.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Moving tribute: John Beyer’s memoir is an inspirational page-turner.
Recovery read: A Long Island author is winning hearts – and spurring positive action – with a memoir chronicling his lifelong battle with addiction.
John Beyer – founder and president of Woodbury-based Men on the Move moving company and an active autism awareness advocate alongside his wife, Amy – released “Live a Little Better” (2025 Worth Books) in September. Cowritten by Glenn Paskin, the biography tracks Beyer from his childhood in Queens (the son of addicts) through his own addiction recovery (credited to Amy and Alcoholics Anonymous) to his entrepreneurial successes and social-action crusades (spurred by his son’s autism diagnosis).
The founding board member of the nonprofit Spectrum Designs Foundation and former chairman of Autism Speaks’ Long Island Board of Directors is earning rave reviews with “Live a Little Better.” Emmy-nominated, Tony-winning actress Annaleigh Ashford noted Beyer’s “honesty, resilience and deep heart” and called his transformation “raw, powerful and profoundly human,” while 1-800-Flowers.com founder Jim McCann applauded “an honest, inspiring look at how [Beyer] turned life’s toughest challenges into opportunities for growth … this book shows just how powerful it can be to choose growth, no matter what life throws you.”
Trains of thought: The economic and environmental benefits of Long Island’s freight-rail system were on track at a recent Long Island Association networking event.
The LIA’s Economic Development and Infrastructure Committee chatted up New York and Atlantic Railway President Marlon Taylor Oct. 14, discussing operations at the NYA, which leases Long Island Rail Road tracks and connects regional freight to a national transit network. The private railroad company, a subsidiary of Illinois-based Anacostia Rail Holdings Co., supports Island businesses by transporting lumber, paper, food and other goods, and plays a key role in shipping waste and recyclables out of Nassau and Suffolk.
It’s also credited with significant truck-traffic reductions – another regional benefit making rail freight “the hidden backbone of Long Island’s economy,” according to Taylor. “Freight infrastructure is critical to our region’s economic and environmental prosperity,” agreed Long Island Association President and CEO Matt Cohen. “Additionally, while the Brookhaven Landfill played an indispensable role in the region’s waste management, concerns about its imminent closure are mitigated by NYA’s proven track record of good community stewardship, environmental protection and relationships with local businesses.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Intestinal fortitude: A New York Institute of Technology researcher has helped bioengineer a 3D-printed “mini colon” that could open the door to new and improved cancer therapies.
Bang zoom: Halloween gets smarter, funnier and a little scarier as “Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast” welcomes actor and filmmaker Spencer Bang, an up-and-coming moviemaker with innovative budget-management skills, a 21st Century marketing plan and a hankering for horror.
ICYMI
With loads of entrepreneurial spirit and a dash of magic, a Mount Sinai bookshop is fulfilling a lifelong dream, reinvigorating community spirit – and challenging e-commerce empires.
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BEST OF THE WEST (AND SOMETIMES NORTH/SOUTH)
Innovate LI’s inbox overrunneth with inspirational innovations from all North American corners. This week’s brightest out-of-towners:
From Massachusetts: Boston-based beautification booster giveBeauty debuts universal gift card redeemable across nationwide wellness/personal-care network.
From Texas: Plano-based wireless-communications cornerstone Cardo Systems powers up new standards for motorcycle-helmet connectivity.
From Illinois: Chicago-based commerce creator Threekit applies artificial intelligence efficiency to client, designer and contractor building-material choices.
ON THE MOVE
Patrise Miller
+ Patrise Miller has been named executive director of FIRST Long Island. She is head of human resources at Deer Park-based Schenck USA Corp. and a longtime FIRST Long Island volunteer.
+ Al Altieri has been named president of Edgewood-based Windowrama Enterprises. He will continue in a dual role as the company’s chief executive officer.
+ Amelia Alverson has been named executive vice president and chief development officer for New Hyde Park-based Northwell Health. She was executive vice president for university development and alumni relations at Columbia University in Manhattan.
+ The Bohemia-based People’s Arc of Suffolk Foundation has announced four new appointments to its Board of Directors:
- Melissa Naeder, senior director at Melville-based Cushman & Wakefield
- Erin O’Brien, partner at Uniondale-based Cullen and Dykman
- Noel Raab, president of Melville-based Fivestar Advertising
- Michele Rebetti, president of Huntington Station-based Crestcom KEY Alliance
+ Nisha Ghayalod has joined Southold Family Medicine, a practice of the Stony Brook Medicine Community Medical Group. She is a board-certified physician specializing in family medicine and addiction medicine.
+ Bohemia-based P.W. Grosser Consulting has announced six new hires:
- Carol Bermingham has been hired as controller. She was operations controller at Excell Communications in Plainview.
- Natalie Bianchi has been hired as an environmental planner. She was a seasonal public safety ranger for the New York State Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation at Green Lakes State Park in Fayetteville.
- Steven Hoeft has been hired as a project manager. He was a senior design engineer at Key Civil Engineering in Holtsville.
- Lucas Pelaez has been hired as a project engineer. He was a design engineer at Fiskaa Engineering in Manhattan.
- Jim Saxton has been hired as a senior hydrogeologist. He was an environmental project manager at Labella Associates in Syracuse.
- Chris Wenczel has been hired as a senior project manager. He was a technical director/hydrogeologist at ERM Consulting & Engineering in Manhattan.
+ Joseph La Ferlita has been named a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Council. He is a partner at Uniondale-based Rivkin Radler focused on trusts and estate law.
+ Justin Berbig has been promoted to veterans outreach manager at Hauppauge-based Long Island Cares-The Harry Chapin Regional Food Bank. He was veterans outreach coordinator.
Like this newsletter? Innovate Long Island newsletter, website and podcast sponsorships are a prime opportunity to reach the inventors, investors, entrepreneurs and executives you need to know – on Long Island, and soon, across New York State (just ask LocaLI Bred). Gregory Zeller can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Halloween Edition)
Oh, that’s Cold(play): From anonymous adulterers to Halloween-costume sensation.
Nowhere to hide: “Coldplay Jumbotron Couple” tops 2025’s viral-headline costumes.
Hide in plain sight: When Halloween costumes were matters of life and death.
Hidden truth: The realities behind many Halloween myths are not so scary.
Hidden treasures: Please continue supporting the groundbreaking businesses that support Innovate Long Island, including LocaLI Bred, which packs one-of-a-kind gift boxes with made-on-Long Island riches. Check them out (and don’t forget to use code “innovateli5” on those big corporate orders!).
