Farmingdale Hosts Lax 4 Backpax Charity Event

The Farmingdale community hosted the inaugural Lax 4 Backpax charity lacrosse tournament on Saturday, Aug. 6 at

The Pay It Forward Long Island charity organization created and ran the event. Pay It Forward is dedicated to collecting and purchasing school supplies and clothing for the needy children in the local community.

“Our goal is to provide assistance to families with things that others take for granted. Any way we can help them will add up,” said event organizer Kate Kelly. “We are raising money by bringing teams in, selling raffles and Chili’s was nice enough to donate food that we can sell. We want to grow little by little and eventually help other communities as well.” 

Each of the 40 participating lacrosse clubs and teams from Long Island and Upstate New York received a complimentary backpack with supplies and t-shirts to support the cause. Attendees helped raise goods for more than 200 families in Farmingdale as well as outfits for first days of school.

Children who will be receiving the goods before the start of the academic year all attend local Farmingdale schools, including four elementary level schools -- , , and -- as well as

“We decided our first event should be in Farmingdale since it is where we live, and we wanted to help people here first. We want to help the kids and get them ready for a successful school year,” said another event organizer Jen Pantorno. “I think our first year is going really well with a good turnout and lots of teams.”

The lacrosse tournament was open to youths entering third grade up to seventh grade, where each team gets the opportunity to play three or four games. Farmingdale P.A.L. teams were on hand to represent the town and take part in the days’ action and activities.

Multiple vendors took part in the event to offer merchandise, refreshments and food to supporters. Main sponsors of the event included the of Farmingdale, , Warrior Lacrosse and Lacrosse Trends. Local rock band “Superbad” was also on hand for full music entertainment.

The event organizers, including Kelly and Pantorno, thanked Kerry O’Flynn, Dennis Kelly, Katie McKnight, Jen Yaeger, Bob Ryan, and Pam Snyder Ball, who played a large part in the success of Lax 4 Backpax.

The Pay It Forward charity plans to run three more local fundraisers for the remainder of the year to meet their new goal of four events annually to help with similar purposes for neighboring families.