Community

Mainstays of the community host fundraisers

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Two service-based, mission-driven organizations, the Valley Stream Lions Club and the Valley Stream Presbyterian Church, held their annual fundraising events this month in the Hendrickson Pool parking lot. The Lions gave thrifty shoppers and bargain hunters a rip-roaring good time at their 28th annual charity flea market on Sept. 17. “There’s a little bit of everything,” said Lion David Basile, from vintage movie posters to organic honey to handmade jewelry at a bargain price. The parking lot squeezed in as close to ninety vendors this year, both amateurs and veterans of the game, eager to show off what they’ve crated, dug up, and handcrafted to curious residents. 

The Lions Club uses the market as a fundraiser to support a variety of charitable causes whether it’s hunger relief, fighting blindness, helping the disabled, or giving local scholarships. At last year’s flea market, the Lions made a little over $4,000. This year, they made about $5,500.

Last Saturday, the Valley Stream Presbyterian Church turned the pool parking lot into their own full-scale, pop-up amusement park operated by Dreamland Amusements for a bit of family fun. This year’s carnival came complete with classic rides like a 70-foot Ferris wheel, drop tower, carousel, and bouncy house with carnival games on the side. Not to mention the live entertainment with a Christian gospel concert to boot. A bustling crowd of families got in on the fun .

“This is really a chance for the neighborhood and the community to get together one last time before it gets really, really cold,” said Reverend Kymberley Clemons-Jones.

All proceeds raised from the fair will go to support the church amid its recent fall into financial hardship due to Covid-related stressors, according to Clemons-Jones, who plans to step down as pastor later this year, also citing financial pressure.