By Lt. Al Hickey
Sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and grandchildren of Bellmore firefighters were treated to a family-oriented program featuring Connie the Clown, coloring kits, bubble makers, holiday stamps, pizza, fruit punch, cupcakes, balloons and goody bags. Each child also received a special gift during a visit by Santa.
While the children were there to have fun, they were also thinking of the less fortunate in the community. Each year, arriving children and their parents are asked to bring non-perishable food items, paper goods, diapers, baby food, cleaning products and other items to donate to a worthy cause. The children displayed their generosity again this year, arriving with armfuls of items for Mama's House, a home for single mothers and their children, a group sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. Through their generosity, others less fortunate may now have a brighter holiday.
Participating in the donation collections, as well as the entire program were young people from the St. Barnabas Roman Catholic Church's eighth-grade confirmation class as part of their community-service project.
The young people, under the direction of their religion teacher, Rosalie Walker, worked hard to bring smiles to the faces of the youngsters at the party. Taking part were Katie Ciasullo, Kayla Kubicke, Courtney Carroll, Tom Janover, Joanne Kaempf, Caitlin Walker, Kevin Conners, Lisa Palazzo, Frankie Maldonado and Justin Karnick.
