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GREENBURGH, N.Y. – As the sun began to set in Greenburgh, families flocked to Hartsdale's Richard Presser Park to munch on buttery popcorn and ride the motorcycle merry-go-round.
Through Sunday, Hartsdale's Kiwanis Club is hosting its annual fundraiser, acquiring funds for local, national and international causes.
"I can't even describe what it feels like to give back to the community," said longtime Kiwanis member Claudia White. "Every time we do something, I feel like I'm having a birthday party, because I know we've done something to help someone in need."
The money raised from the carnival – now running for more than 20 years – is distributed back to Greenburgh. The club recently stuffed backpacks for the Lois Bronz Children's Center; organized a winter coat drive; and donated to pediatrics programs, the Greenburgh Nature Center and the Greenburgh Police Department's Community Emergency Response Team.
On an international level, the club is currently partnered with UNICEF to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus.
"It's a fabulous feeling," said Linda Witzling, the Hartsdale Kiwanis Club president. "It's wonderful to know that you are raising this money that can help so many people – some in little ways and some in big ways. As part of a large national and international organization, we get to really spread it around."
At the carnival, the smell of french fries and sweet sugar filled the air as children waited in line to board the Ferris wheel, the Teacups, the Hillbilly Express and the Dizzy Dragon.
A mother wiped her daughter's hand, covered in cotton candy, as another daughter sipped ice-cold lemonade. More young children squealed to their parents, begging to ride the roller coasters.
"It's the whole atmosphere here," White said. "You can smell the sausage and peppers cooking. And the community gets to meet each other. Part of the highlight is being able to speak with people locally. It really is festive and wonderful for us."
For more than 20 years, the carnival has continued to grow and attendance rates have become larger, White said.
"There's nothing in the entire world like being a volunteer," she said. "We all like to feel like we can do something to help people in need. Kiwanis certainly fills the gap there."
The carnival will be open from 6 to 11 p.m. Friday, 2 to 11 p.m. Saturday and 2 to 9 p.m. Sunday.
Comments (1)
The Carnival is a wondrous event and kudos' to the Kiwanis Club for its continued support to the community.
But if you go to this event, take note of the large, flat field which houses the Carnival. For this is a mostly unused town Park which, except for a few weekends when it is given over to the occasional Carnival or a flea market, this Town asset remains vacant and pristine. Rarely, if ever, is even the existing baseball field used. A prime example of hiding in plain sight in the face of GameOn's presumed market coming from all over while local residents ignore what is located just down the block.
Yet the Commission of Parks and Recreation, Gerry Byrne, is ever eager to please his master, Town Supervisor Feiner and comment publicly that there is great unfulfilled, demand for soccer fields. A notion that is backed up by the town's soccer moms who were recruited by Feiner to speak in favor of the GameOn sports bubble Lease for the former Frank's Nursery site two mile afar. A Lease which provides little revenue relief to Greenburgh, requires re-zoning and will add to the traffic generated by the Fortress Bible Church/School which was made unwelcome because of its own potential for creating new traffic. A Lease to GameOn whose procurement procedure was anything but "kosher" AND a Lease which may yet prove to be illegal.
So when you attend the Kiwanis-sponsored Carnival, think past their temporary weekend occupancy and instead imagine THREE soccer fields on the barren grounds and think that these same soccer moms would benefit were the town only to add the nets for goals.
Certainly not a major capital expense. Perhaps, if the Town was unable to provide this amenity because it of its financial mismanagement (thank Mr. Feiner for blowing off the $1.2 million annual contribution to revenue from WESTHelp: in September the loss will reach $1.2 million and growing by $100,000 monthly thereafter) those kindly Kiwani could continue their gifting to the Town and donate the 6 soccer goal nets for three soccer layouts.
With the addition of the 3 soccer fields to the Town's Park inventory, this would bring the Town's total to...3. Something that the helpful Commissioner of Parks has failed to explain "how come" but allow me to give proper credit where it's due: thank the Problem Creator, Paul Feiner. Feiner knows the talking value in creating artificial scarcity.
Again, with over 20 Parks operated by Greenburgh, there is NOT ONE in the entire system yet Presser Park, for example, remains vacant.
Something that the recruited Soccer moms never noticed or questioned because it was not in their introductory packet. Another example of your "open" government's inaction in action.
Hal Samis