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Spring craft fair at Hendrickson Park in the works

Village seeks artists, craftspeople for event planned for May

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Arthur J. Hendrickson Park is one of Valley Stream’s best assets, and village officials are organizing a new event to use it and draw people to it.

“One of the things I’ve wanted to do is utilize the park more,” said Mayor Ed Fare. “I just think it’s a jewel. I can’t stress that enough. Something like the fishing event was added here, the haunted hayride was added here … my thought was that the one season we didn’t have something going on here was the spring.”

The idea is to have an outdoor art and craft showcase featuring vendors selling handmade goods and other creations, according to Community Center manager SallyAnn Esposito. She said she wants the event to be of the sort found in Central Park, with real artistic talent on display. “This is not a flea market,” she said. “This is strictly for people who are creative — they have a talent.”

Esposito said she and Recreation Supervisor Tom Roberts are working to arrange musical performances, food stations and activities for kids. As a child, she recalled, she learned to ride a bike, learned to swim and played on the grounds. She wants the event, christened the Valley Stream Community Craft Fair and More, to help boost the location’s profile and let residents know that things are happening there. “It’s nice to see the park come alive with more to offer,” she said.

Roberts said that residents’ use seemed to decline in the late 1990s. He added that he hopes that as people continue to move to Valley Stream, they’ll discover what has become a rarity in Nassau County — a large, idyllic green space that visitors can get lost in.

Roberts was involved in a village craft fair 14 years ago, and described this event as a reinvention of that. The previous fair was organized by an outside group, but the idea now is to keep corporate salespeople out and select vendors with personal works — photography, painting, woodcarving or anything else crafted with some level of expertise. “It will be juried,” he said. “Each vendor has to be approved.”

Each vendor will pay a $100 fee to have a booth for the day. Tents will be necessary, as the fair will go on rain or shine. Interested parties can email Esposito at vscomcenter@vsvny.org.

Fare said that the event’s value would go beyond an opportunity for buyers and sellers. “Nothing is more valuable than bringing people together,” he said, “and Valley Stream is a diverse community, and it is dynamic and changing all the time, so I think we have to bring all sorts of different activities and events in and allow the people in the community to see one another, to see what’s available, and also to realize that Valley Stream is the place to be — that there’s a lot to offer here.”