A joyous holiday at Hall’s Pond Park

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A holiday celebration at Hall’s Pond Park drew hundreds to the hamlet on a beautiful, 60-degree Sunday afternoon last week.

The event, organized by the West Hempstead Community Support Association together with the Central Nassau County Rotary, featured many new children’s activities, and combined the assocations’ children’s holiday party with its tree lighting ceremony. Free photos with Santa, courtesy of the Lakeview Fire Department were offered, along with face painting, stuff-a-bear activities, a strolling magician, costumed characters, an old-fashioned Riesterer’s truck serving hot chocolate, and pony rides courtesy of the New York Equestrian Center. Children’s choruses from the Cornwell Ave. and St. Thomas the Apostle schools performed holiday carols - a first for this event.

It was also announced at the event that Alex Jacobsen, owner of the NYEC, would be honored by the WHCSA later this month. “Alex has always been a complete supporter of our community, and we have selected him to be our West Hempstead Business Pride Award recipient for 2015,” said Rosalie Norton, president of the WHCSA.

Reverend Raymond E. Lorthioir, Jr. of the Trinity Lutheran Church in West Hempstead was one of several community religious leaders who spoke at the event. “I see the menorah lit here and it’s a reminder that we all have a Jewish background,” said Lorthioir. “We remind ourselves that we have this connection, we have this opportunity to rejoice together during this season of the year,”

Rabbi Art Vernon of Congregation Shaaray Shalom also commented, “It was Eleanor Roosevelt who supposedly said she was a woman who’d rather light a candle than curse the darkness — and that’s what we do,” said Vernon. “We don’t despair. We don’t dwell on the darkness. We light lights. We illuminate our lives."