Bringing the community together
Local festival raises money for charities
The Jamaica Cultural Alliance held its first annual Nakisaki Memorial Gospel Wellness Food, Arts and Crafts Festival at Eisenhower Park last Saturday. Created to promote the health and wellness of all people across communities, the event celebrated the life of Earl Michael Roy Lyn.
Lyn, who brought Nakisaki, a Jamaican Chinese restaurant, to the Village of Hempstead more than 25 years ago, suffered from numerous medical ailments. In the last five years of his life, Lyn was diagnosed with cancer and had a triple bypass, but later died from heart failure. The festival celebrated his life and raised money for medical research with proceeds going to the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, United Cerebral Palsy and the March of Dimes.
The daylong, family-friendly event featured music by gospel choirs, food vendors and a Kidz Zone where children collected free giveaways, had their faces painted and jumped around in an inflatable bounce house.
