Newsday, Sunday March 17, 2013 1:21 PM By Dan Janison
Lawyer Regina Calcaterra, of New Suffolk, who serves these days as director of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s Moreland Act commission on utility disaster response, has penned a harrowing personal memoir, “Etched in Sand: A True Story of Five Siblings Who Survived an Unspeakable Childhood on Long Island.”
Due for release in August from HarperCollins, the book tells of how she and four siblings survived abuse and the foster-care system. Until earlier this year Calcaterra, was chief deputy to Suffolk Executive Steve Bellone. Before that, as a private attorney, she litigated high-profile lawsuits in response to corporate fraud.
“I wrote our story,” Calcaterra said last week, “as a true-life reminder of how community and perseverance can lift even the poorest and most disadvantaged children among us into a thriving, contributing life. I know firsthand that no child needs to be a statistic, we just need to pay attention.”