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Arts & Entertainment

Community Celebrates New Memorial, Local Students at Strawberry Festival

The Farmingdale-Bethpage Historical Society hosted the event.

The Farmingdale-Bethpage Historical Society hosted a Strawberry Festival on Sunday to thank the community for their contributions towards the creation of the the Village's new Civil War Memorial.

The South Shore Brass Ensemble took the stage to perform their 25-year anniversary concert for residents, playing a variety of music ranging from the score of the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz" to patriotic songs like "Salute to the Sailors."

One of the South Shore Brass members, french horn player Denise Meshejian, said that the group's connections to Farmingdale, like that fact that is home to two of the groups members, Joseph DeAngelis and Thomas Lazicky, is what made the ensemble decide to make the town the location of their anniversary concert.

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"The big reason why we chose Farmingdale to celebrate our 25th season is because we have been lighting the three at Christmastime here for about 25 years and we thought it was a great connection," Meshejian said.

Farmingdale Deputy Mayor and Village Trustee, Patricia Christiansen, was also on hand to commemorate the event.

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"On behalf of Mayor Starkie and my fellow trustees, we on the board wish to thank the historical society for the redesign of this village green. The Historical Society gave us the incentive to move ahead with this idea and we are so very proud," she said. "It would not have happened without their part. We will now all be able to enjoy it during all events and we want it to be an integral part of the community."

Member of the Farmingdale-Bethpage Historical Society's awards committee and Trustee JoAnne Bihary presented two 2011 graduating seniors with awards on behalf of the Society.

John Anderson, who plans on studying history at Hofstra University, was awarded with the traditional academic award. The Society's new award, the memorial award, was given to Jessica Wiking, who is planning to study history at C.W. Post, Long Island University.

"History has always been a great passion of mine. I'm thankful to the Historical Cociety for this award," Anderson said.

Bihary was pleased with the awards recipients.

"We are really lucky to have young folks like this in Farmingdale," Bihary said.

One of the Historical Society trustees, Serena Brochu, was also honored for her work verifying the names on the new memorial. 

"This is a project that we are all very passionate about. I'm happy to lend my research skills to help. The final result is great and we all look forward to future projects," Brochu said.

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