Ceremony recognizing community contributions will highlight day-long fair
Huntington Station -- The Seventh Annual Huntington Awareness Day will be held on Saturday, September 10, 2016, with a day-long fair that will include bounce rides for children, music for adults and lots of fun and food for all.
The Huntington Awareness Day Committee will also recognize one organization and three distinguished residents for their contributions to the community.
The fair will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the municipal parking lot on New York Avenue between Railroad and Church Streets, with a brief program scheduled for noon. Among those to be recognized during the program are:
-- The Huntington Hispanic Soccer League, which for the past 26 years has run programs at the Town’s Manor Field Park. Currently, the league has ten teams and about 150 players ranging in age from 16 to 40 years old.
-- Dr. Lehti Laas Ramos, a lifelong Huntington Station resident who has been active in the Huntington Community First Aid Squad, helped found the Huntington Station Happy Helpers and has been affiliated with the Friends of the Huntington Train Station, the Huntington branch of the NAACP, the Friends of Huntington Station Latin Quarter, Gateway Park and the Blue Star Mothers’ water bottle collection.
-- Frances Cerra Whittelsey, who as executive director of the Long Island Community Agriculture Network was a driving force in starting the Gateway Park Community Garden in Huntington Station. She has served as a member of the Huntington Town recycling advisory committee, was a board member of the Huntington Housing Coalition and was instrumental in the formation of the Huntington Interfaith Housing Initiative, which shelters homeless men every winter. She is an award-winning journalist, cited for her work focusing on consumer abuses and investigations.
-- Sara Bluestone, a 30-year Huntington resident who has served as President of the Leadership Huntington Foundation’s Board of Directors and currently serves as a Co-Chair of the LHF President’s Council and Treasurer of The Huntington Community Council. Trained in the arts and photography, Ms. Bluestone’s career in the arts and arts administration has ranged from being the preservation curator of the famed Bettmann Archive in New York City, to administering NYS Council for the Arts grants for the Huntington Arts Council. She has volunteered her time for the Huntington Union Free School District PTA’s Arts in Education Committee and in 2001, helped found the Town’s Public Arts Advisory Committee. She served as its Chair from 2001 – 2008.
“This year’s fair should be the biggest and best one yet, bringing together many segments of our community to express our commitment to working together toward the common goal of improving our Town – the type of commitment exemplified by our honorees,” said Huntington Supervisor Frank P. Petrone, one of the event’s co-chairs. “The fair will include entertainment for children and adults, private vendors and many of the community’s not-for-profit organizations offering information on the services they provide.”
“When we started in 2010, we hoped that an event would focus attention on all the good things going on in our community,” said Dolores Thompson, another of the co-chairs, representing the Huntington Enrichment Center. (The third co-chair is Keith Barrett, representing the Huntington Station Business Improvement District.) “Six years later, we have even more progress to celebrate and an event that has become an institution bringing together government, the private sector, religious groups and agencies that provide vital services.”
Sponsors for this year’s event include the Huntington Station Business Improvement District; the Town of Huntington Economic Development Corporation; the Huntington Township Chamber of Commerce; M.A. Connell Funeral Home; Aboffs Inc.; and the law firms Forchelli, Curto, Deegan, Schwartz, Mineo & Terrana LLP and Kushnick Pallaci PLLC.
For more information about becoming a sponsor or a vendor, call Dolores Thompson at 631-470-0636, email her at huntsec@aol.com, or visit the website www.huntingtonawareness.org, where you can obtain details and download application forms to be a sponsor or a vendor.