In ‘bittersweet twist,’ Jim Stark is posthumously honored by Heidi’s Helping Angels for public service

Heidi Behr was only 23 years old when she was killed in a horrific ambulance crash, taking her life in the line of duty and leaving her parents to care for her severely disabled infant son.

That may have been 10 years ago, but Heidi still continues to impact the lives of those in the community where she so avidly volunteered her time as an ambulance worker – thanks to the efforts of a man who never even got to meet her.

“He was a friend we never knew we had,” said June Behr, Heidi’s mother, at a Polish Hall fundraising dinner last night. “Of course we knew who Jimmy Stark was. Everyone in Riverhead Town knew who he was. Did I know him personally? Did we ever think in a million years that he would do all of this for us? Absolutely not.”

Behr was first approached by Stark shortly after her daughter’s death. She and her husband, John, had just been nominated for ABC’s television show “Extreme Makeover” to renovate their home for Heidi’s disabled son, who suffers from cerebral palsy and epilepsy.

“He came up to me and said, ‘Kid, you’re never going to get it in a million years,’” Behr said. “You know Jimmy’s way of sugar-coating things.”

So Stark took matters into his own hands. Enlisting the help of friends, local business owners and the larger community, Stark managed to gather the labor and the funds necessary to make the Behrs’ Cutchogue home handicapped-accessible for Heidi’s son.

But renovating the Behrs’ house was only a side project for Stark. His real passion – one he would devote the rest of his life to – was an organization he created in her honor: Heidi’s Helping Angels.

“It was all he talked about,” said Catherine Stark, his daughter, during last night’s annual fundraising steak night dinner for Heidi’s Helping Angels. “It gave such meaning to his life.”

Heidi’s Helping Angels has distributed more than $30,000 in scholarship funds to date. It awards proclamations and recognizes community members who have demonstrated outstanding public service, such as the four Riverhead firefighters who were honored last night for rescuing a man in January from his burning home on Middle Road.

With Stark’s advocacy, the organization also had the road in the riverfront Main Street parking lot renamed to Heidi Behr Way.

“Jim was a man who was sensitive enough to be shaken by the tragedy that befell Heidi,” said Lori Pipczynski, Stark’s longtime friend and former executive assistant. “And he was strong enough to remind us of the sacrifices that our neighbors continue to make every day to protect and to serve us.”

Like the many residents he sought to honor through the organization, Stark was very much a community servant himself. He served on the Riverhead Town Board as both councilman and supervisor for seven years. Even after he lost his bid for re-election in 1997, he continued to remain active in Riverhead’s political sphere, regularly offering up advice to those still in Town Hall.

“He truly cared about the town,” said Robert Kozakievicz, deputy town attorney and a former town supervisor who sat on the town board with Stark. “Riverhead was part of his core.”

That was because he was so invested in the people of the Riverhead community, said Mark Stark, his son.

“Heidi’s Helping Angels kept him connected to the town,” said Mark, who also volunteers for Riverhead Ambulance Corps and knew Heidi personally before her death. “He didn’t like the accolades. He did it because it was the right thing to do. Right for the community – right for June and John – to keep the remembrance of Heidi alive.”

Stark died this spring on March 18 after a valiant battle with lung cancer. But Heidi’s Helping Angels has continued onward, raising money for its scholarship with yet another packed steak night fundraiser at Polish Hall yesterday.

And in a bittersweet twist, Stark was post-humously honored by his own organization at the dinner for his own public service as the driving force behind a not-for-profit that has grown much larger than any one person’s memory.

“When you lose someone, all you really want is for them to be remembered,” Catherine Stark said tearfully after the presentation. “He did that for the Behrs. And so I’m thankful that they did this for Dad tonight.”

Heidi’s Helping Angels steak night photos by Peter Blasl.