Fair aims to bring Huntington Station together

Violent crime can go a long way toward scuffing a public image.

Just ask Dolores Thompson, a longtime Huntington Station activist and organizer of Huntington Awareness Day, a daylong event Saturday that offered free, family-oriented entertainment and information.

"Because we have so many negative comments about our community, we were going to do something to bring everybody together," Thompson, 81, said.

Thompson said she hopes Huntington Awareness Day becomes an annual event. But she also wishes that the events that led to its creation would fade away.

A series of violent crimes in the Huntington Station community this year have put it in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. The violence sparked school officials to shutter the Jack Abrams School in mid-July. On July 11, a 16-year-old was shot in the leg during a street party near the Lowndes avenue school's parking lot.

In response to the high-profile crimes, police have rounded up Latin Kings gang members and increased patrols.

But Saturday, in a train station parking lot on New York Avenue, it was rides for kids and food vendors as well as a parade down nearby streets, all designed to combat the bad news that's grabbed headlines over the summer.

"We need to have unity in the Station," Thompson said. "It's not just 'the Village' and 'the Station.' We need more housing, more businesses here. That's why we're doing this, to bring people together."

There were 70 booths at the event, including 60 nonprofits that offered information about health, housing and finances, said Joan Cergol, special assistant for economic development to Huntington Town Supervisor Frank Petrone. "A lot of families don't know how to access them," Cergol said.

Frani Hicks, 74, and Elsie Kidwell, 80, were two Huntington Station residents who strolled in yesterday's sunshine at the fair. They made a donation to a Kiwanis Club program that sends kids to summer camp.

"There's so much going on, a lot of it negative," Hicks said. "We need something positive."