For some, finding one’s true mission in life will forever remain a mystery. Your life’s course can be altered by a single event and can point you in a completely different direction than previously imagined. Sharon Levine and Paula Geonie, sisters and part of the Rubin family of Baiting Hollow Farm Vineyard LLC, altered their courses and, in the process, changed countless lives along the way.

The Rubin family settled in Suffolk in 1961 when Sam Rubin purchased a parcel of land and named it Baiting Hollow Farm. Sam loved the land. He believed in feeding his family organic produce, which moved him to purchase adjoining land, until the parcel grew to 17 acres. Baiting Hollow Farm Vineyard now has the distinction of being the first vineyard on the North Fork winery tours. The grounds are elegantly landscaped and their tasting house, which dates back to 1861 and reopened in 2002, was lovingly restored by the family. This rich agricultural area is home to some of Long Island’s most vital natural treasures.

Sharon and Paula have two very distinct stories that blend together like a fine wine, if you can forgive the pun.

The Rubin family, led by Sam and Rhoda, provided their five children with strong role models. Both parents were entrepreneurs and have made huge contributions to the people on Long Island—not only through the Baiting Hollow Farm Vineyard LLC, but also with Rhoda’s involvement as the first Suffolk franchisee of Weight Watchers. The franchise was sold in 2005 and as Sharon succinctly puts it, “Four minutes later, we were onto the winery.”

Says Paula, “When people walk through our doors, we have a relationship.” True to her word, I was given a tour of the tasting house and grounds, and the sisters made me feel like a part of their family. As we overlooked the lush lawns amid wine tasters enjoying a picture-perfect East End day, Sharon began telling me her story.

Sharon was involved in growing the family business in day-to-day operations when she received a chilling phone call. The caller explained that a tractor trailer filled with 42 horses was leaving for a slaughterhouse and included on the truck was a very young filly. Sharon says her previous interaction with horses was limited, but she always admired them from afar. Sharon ended up rescuing three horses from death that day, and over the last year and a half, she has saved 16 in all—including the great grandsons of power-horses Man O War and Secretariat. “I thought it was all old horses [that were sent to slaughter],” she says as we toured the newly constructed barns and paddocks that are now home to these stunning animals. The whitewashed fences create a backyard for the horses to graze, and their barns provide comfortable shelter from the elements.

Sharon has combined the pleasure of wine tasting with the rescue operation by giving the public a firsthand look at the exquisite horses throughout the farm. “This does a few things,” explains Sharon. “It gets the word out about horse slaughter, our visitors get to have the farm experience, and people help to rehabilitate the horses [with their interaction]. That’s what animals need, constant socialization.” She goes on to describe how terrified the horses are when they first come to the farm, but once they see that they are safe, they blossom. As we walked down the lane where the horses lazily grazed, Sharon calls the horses over and they respond eagerly at the opportunity to receive a loving pat from the woman who saved them. “Now I can ride them all over the vineyard,” she says proudly.

Yet while Sharon’s life was altered by helping to save these animals from a cruel end, her sister Paula’s life was violently interrupted when she became the victim of a brutal crime that has been referred to by police as the Mahjong Caper.

It was 1982. Paula was at a friend’s home when they were confronted by armed, masked men who proceeded to rob and terrorize them—a nightmare that would send even the strongest person reeling. Her ordeal impelled her to have something positive come out of her horrifying experience, and she became involved in child safety and victimization.

A year after the robbery, she founded Playing It Safe, which became a national award-winning non-profit children’s safety program for children ages 3 to 8. She also went on to create another non-profit—Safety Tots International—which includes educational products offering solutions to challenging situations that children may encounter in their lives. Safety Tots uses visual aids including a CD-ROM and Safety Flash Cards that help children effectively answer the question, “What do you think is the safest thing to do?” These products encompass topics like stranger awareness, gun safety, kitchen and bathroom safety and what to do if you get lost in a store or outdoors.

“In the ’90s, when the economy was bad, we lost our funding [for Playing it Safe],” Paula remembers. To keep the foundation afloat, she turned to the only person she knew could help, our very own Tom DiNapoli, who at that time was an Assemblyman in Great Neck. True to his word, Tom introduced Paula to Bill Tymann, the executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Long Island (BBBSLI), who saved the program and adopted it as an offshoot of the BBBSLI organization. “I love kids and always wanted to do something to help them,” Paula says.

With her children’s program being administered by the very capable staff of BBBSLI and Safety Tots International continuing to thrive online, Paula returned to the family business with her sister and focused on the development, marketing and planning for the vineyard. She has spearheaded their corporate gift program and says, “We treat corporations like individuals. We show them that ‘affordable’ can be something magnificent,” she says proudly and adds that their sales are up 300 percent from last year.

“We work together as a team so that we can continue to build relationships,” Paula says. “[Our wine] is now sold in 90 liquor stores and local restaurants.”

The sisters have created a safer world for children and animals. Their missions have come together at the Baiting Hollow Farm Vineyard, where you can take your children to a kid-friendly place for pony rides and face painting and they can see these beautiful animals thrive.

As Paula says, “This is a wonderful place to go and forget about your worries. This is a place that people never expect to be in their own backyard.” Having spent the afternoon listening to their stories in a setting like no other, I couldn’t agree more.

For more information go to www.BaitingHollowFarmVineyard.com or call 631-369-0100.

If you know a super woman who deserves good Fortune—and a profile—e-mail your nominations to Beverly at bfortune@longislandpress.com.




HOW YOU CAN RESCUE A HORSE

Sharon asks those who want to help save horses in danger of being slaughtered to write to their congressman to urge them to pass the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act, which will prohibit the slaughter of American horses for human consumption, including the transport of horses to Mexico and Canada for this purpose. According to Patrick Kwan, NYS director of the HSUS, Senators Schumer and Gillibrand have not signed on as co-sponsors of the bill yet and those who are concerned about equine protection should contact them. Go to www.bit.ly/preventequinecruelty for more info.