Clowning around at the Forest City fall fest

Forest City Community Park played host to the annual fall festival last Saturday to celebrate the Wantagh community. The event has been held for more than a dozen years, organized by the Forest City Community Association.

At the park in North Wantagh, there were various activities including a rock-climbing wall, pony rides, obstacles courses and raffles.

“I oversee everything and make sure everything runs smoothly,” FCCA Vice President Robert Steiner said. “The best part is hearing afterwards about how much fun it was, seeing the kids’ smiling faces and people saying ‘thank you’ for what we do.”

With 1,100 homes in the close-knit community, many people came to the festival to listen to the live band and nibble on free popcorn and cotton candy, perfect treats for the festival’s circus theme.

“We have to buy everything, get the insurance and come up with a theme,” FCCA Social Chair Lisa Carmada said. “The best part of it, even though it is a lot of hard work, is seeing the children ride on the ponies and having a nice turnout.”

The festival also had pizza donated from Café Boccelli’s in East Meadow as well as assorted desserts from North Shore Farms in North Bellmore.

The Wantagh-Levittown Volunteer Ambulance Corps was also in attendance as members handed out candy and offered information and gave free electrocardiograms, a test that shows the heart’s electrical activity as lines on tracing paper.

“I love seeing the whole community come together,” FCCA Treasurer Rosemary Fordham said. “Not many communities have things like this going on.”

The festival offered crafts for the children and different items for purchase such as homemade jewelry and patterned duct tape wallets made by community members.

“The kids really enjoy this and that’s what keeps me coming back,” FCCA Chair Tom Kohlman said. “My role was talking to other businesses in the area who gave us gift certificates for the baskets and speaking with the different sponsors as well.”

The festival ended with a dedication of a stone memorial plaque to Rich Desantis, a lifelong park supervisor who died in March. Forest City community members wanted to recognize Desantis for making a great impact in both Wantagh and Levittown.

The current park supervisor, Tommy Peretti, was also at the festival enjoying the event and keeping the area safe.

“Our responsibility is to get the park looking the best that we can so when people come, they can see what they have,” he said. “I’m a people person and I love seeing everyone in the community.”

Along with the fall festival, the FCCA will also be hosting a holiday party at the clubhouse this December and an Easter egg hunt for the children next April.