Get your PINK on for the Angels

Cathie and Nathan Hall at the “Where Angel’s Play” Pink Benefit (Penny Frondelli/Herald)

Penny Frondelli/Herald

Island Park Fire Chief Ed Madden, Nikki Madden, Cathie Hall, Tom and Kim Emerson, IPBRCC member Tommy Asher, Assemblyman Todd Kaminsky and Island Park Business and Residential Chamber President Terry Reichel.

Penny Frondelli/Herald

Marianne DeMarco and PattyAnne Conte bring on the pink. T-shirts, raffles and 50-50 were all part of the fundraising effort to benefit The Sandy Ground Project: Where Angel’s Play.

Penny Frondelli/Herald

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It was time to get your Pink on, at the third annual benefit for The Sandy Ground Project: Where Angel’s Play fundraiser on Sept. 9 in Island Park.

In 2013, while retired firefighter Bill Lavin and his New Jersey community were recovering from Hurricane Sandy, Adam Lanza opened fire at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut killing 26 people 20 of them children.

Lavin found a way to combine the two tragedies; he formed the project and set out to build 26 playgrounds, each in a Sandy ravaged area, one for each of the victims of Newtown. All of the playgrounds are funded by donations and constructed by firemen, policemen, teachers and community volunteers.

In Island Park the playground was built in memory of Caroline Previdi. It was constructed on Masone Beach, fitting because she loved to swim, and it is pink, her favorite color. Since the completion of that playground Island Park has been holding the fundraiser to give back to the Where Angels Play foundation to help fund other playgrounds, bringing hope, recovery and a return to family values to other communities, and to honor Caroline’s memory. This year they raised $1,000.