SHORT TAKES : Helmsley Donates $300,000

Leona Helmsley, the hotel industry’s so-called “queen of mean,” has donated $300,000 to set up a program that will locate, identify and return people with Alzheimer’s disease who wander from home and get lost.

Helmsley, who made the donation Monday, became interested in Alzheimer’s through her lawyer, Alan Dershowitz. His father suffers from the progressive, irreversible disease that robs victims of their memory.

The program will be available first for the estimated 225,000 Alzheimer’s victims in the New York City area and will expand eventually to Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington.

Participants will wear an identifying bracelet and emblem containing a toll-free number. Anyone who spots them can call the number to alert police.

Helmsley, 70, was convicted last year of billing personal expenses to the Helmsley business empire. She is free on appeal.