Village of Rockville Centre employee retires after 44 years

The celebration on Friday, Aug. 14, was bittersweet. After 44 years of working for the Village of Rockville Centre’s Recreation Department – and the last four as its superintendent – Ginger Creegan clocked out from her final shift, then attended a socially distant party in her honor in the center’s parking lot. About 50 people from various departments came to wish her well as she enters a new chapter and says goodbye to a career that, she said, she thoroughly enjoyed.

“I loved going to work every day,” Creegan said. “The staff is phenomenal and it never really felt like a job.”

Creegan joined the Recreation Department in 1976 as a part-time acrobatics teacher. The class was for young children and the precursor to the gymnastics class, she said. She had taught physical education for a few years in Uniondale, and that experience and love for sports lead to her the job.

As the gymnastics program grew, she took on more hours, and became full time in 1989 as a recreation leader.

“I was always interested in sports,” she said. “But I knew nothing about gymnastics. It was the ultimate on-the-job training.”

She ended up loving the sport and learning it so well that she became a judge for sports competitions in Nassau County.

In 2002, she became the deputy superintendent to Anthony Brunetta, until he died in 2016. That year, she took over as head of the department.

She said that the recreation department always had the support of the mayor, the board and the village administrator, allowing them to bring new programs to the village. “We always worked well together,” she said, noting that the department’s close relationship with other departments helped form a bond among staff. “I’ll miss that.”

Creegan, 67, described herself as a creative person who was able to bring her ideas to the department. During her tenure, the Breakfast with Santa program was initiated and the center began offering birthday parties to children. Over the decades, she said, she met a lot of “great people,” from community members to coworkers, many of whom she has remained friends with for 30 to 40 years.

She said another rewarding part of the job is keeping in touch with former high school or college student staff members, who then return with their own children. Keeping those ties strong across generations, she said, “is the best part of the job.”

Coworkers said they enjoyed working with Creegan as well.

“I had the pleasure of working with Ginger for almost 20 years,” said Karen Polito, supervisor of the center’s Summer Playground program. “We can’t thank her enough for all she has done for the Rec Center and the Rockville Centre community. She will be missed.”