The Garden City Pool held its second annual Garden City Pool Cares weekend from July 23 to July 25. The facility collected non-perishable items as well as monetary donations from its members for Island Harvest. The Stop & Shop located in West Hempstead provided paper bags, which were handed out to the members with fliers that gave examples of what items could be donated.
The weekend culminated with the Garden City Pool’s annual celebration of Christmas in July, which included a special visit from Santa. At the end of the weekend, the facility collected a total of 1,800 pounds of food! In addition to the weekend festivities, the staff held a movie night on Tuesday, July 26, where they scheduled a viewing of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and created their own version of the Wonka Golden Ticket Contest. Members were given the chance to buy chocolate bars in hopes of finding the five hidden golden tickets.
The Golden Ticket Winners were Bridget Banahan, age 7, Cameron Aries, age 10, Dennis Lind/Kyle Quinn, age 12, William Madaro, age 6, and Kyle Stevenson, age 7. Each of the winners received a golden top hat filled with Wonka candy and Garden City Pool merchandise. The money collected from the contest was donated to Island Harvest, bringing the total amount of monetary donations to over $450. A great time was enjoyed by all the staff and members as they were able to support a worthy cause.
