Two years in the making, 350 years of history

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After two years of intense brainstorming, researching, fundraising and planning GC350, a celebration of Glen Cove’s history, has finally arrived. The events — which began with the Heritage Garden ribbon cutting ceremony at Mill Pond and culminates in a Memorial Day parade on Monday — are the result of the hard work of the GC350 Advisory Board, comprised of the city’s resident history buffs, civic leaders and energetic volunteers.

There are a number of Glen Covers who are descended from the founders of what was then Mosquito Cove — the Coles, the Carpenters and the Skimpsons. Carolyn Wilson and Dave Nieri, members of the North Shore History Museum, were tasked with tracking them down, so that they could be honored at the Morgan Park Picnic on Thrusday May 24.

“Some of them knew their families went back that far,” Wilson said, “but they weren’t really thinking about how they fit into the history.”

Thankfully, Nieri had them covered. Nicknamed “Our own ancestry.com” by fellow advisory board member Lisa Travatello, Nieri used his knowledge of history and historical records to help people confirm whether they had deep ties to old Glen Cove. Give him “a couple of dates and a couple of names,” he said, and if your ancestors ever lived on the North Shore, Nieri can probably find them.

Travatello said that part of the fun she’s had in moving GC350 forward has been the buy-in from the community. For example, she said, the schools have been doing art projects, like painting disk-shaped cutouts from tree trunks to symbolize the “roots” of Glen Cove, or making papier-mâché models of the city’s historical buildings.

Part of what the advisory board members hope for the events is that it will bring Glen Covers into deeper contact with the community, and give them something to share: a love for the city they all call home.

On May 21, over two years since the GC350 plan began in earnest with a handful of dedicated volunteers, about 30 people gathered at the Meritage in downtown Glen Cove for the final logistics meeting of the Special Events Committee. Participants excitedly hammered out a number of last-minute affairs.

The committee, chaired by Jacki Yonick’s experience as a Youth Bureau program coordinator certainly paid off as she corralled the somewhat chatty group. “We’ve got a lot of people here today,” she boomed over the crosstalk. “We need to be one voice.”