Albin Chapel

Most wore antler headbands and their Girl Scout vests, whose colors — blue, beige or green — signified their age. Gathered in the lobby of Glen Cove Hospital last Friday, they gripped sheets of paper with the words that would soon transform them into Christmas angels. The scouts appeared nervous as the audience, a crowd of residents, patients and hospital staff, watched them in anticipation. Then Alice Woodbury played the first chord, and the girls began to sing. When they looked up, the strangers in the audience were smiling and singing, and some, like Kim Rollins, clapped along with the celebratory holiday music. “I love to see the kiddies sing,” Rollins said. “The girls warm my heart.” She said she had stopped by to hear her neighbor, Woodbury, accompany the girls. Now retired, Woodbury was familiar to the staff, having delivered mail to hospital patients for 40 years. Carla Bongiorno, the supervisor of the internal medicine department, who also volunteers as the hospital’s Girl Scout event coordinator, had brought the girls from Glen Head Troops 103 and 24 and Glen Cove Troops 1509 and 1420 to perform at the hospital auxiliary’s tree lighting. The members of the auxiliary, a non-profit volunteer organization, appreciate any help they receive from the community. As for the scouts, they had been practicing for two weeks.Bongiorno’s daughter, Catherine, 13, a member of Troop 24, was one of the older participants, but she was happy to be part of the performance. “I like to make the patients feel good,” she said. “Sometimes they sing along.”It was the fourth year that the scouts were involved, Bongiorno said, adding that everyone at the hospital looks forward to the tree lighting. It also served as a fundraiser for the hospital. The auxiliary, which has around 160 members, invited community members to purchase lights for $5 apiece, to “memorialize, celebrate or honor their friends and...