St. Bernards Levittown.org

Service organization of Catholic men who are 18 years of age or older.     
Contact:  Jim McHale

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Knights of Columbus and The American Legion's Special Friends Christmas Party

Our 31st annual Christmas Party for our Special friends was held on Saturday, December 12th at St. Bernard’s Church. This year’s sponsors included American Legion Post 1711 of Levittown, and five Councils of the 14th District, Rev. Michael Hartigan of Hicksville, Maria Regina of Massapequa, Holy Family and Our Lady of Mercy both of Hicksville and Holy Innocents of Levittown.

We hosted 129 Special Friends and over 50 of their families and staff from all over Long Island. The day was fun filled with the music of Tony Grant and pizza from Villa Maria’s Restaurant.  Santa paid a special visit and presented everyone with a remembrance of the day.  All and all, it was a great party and a fun day for everyone.

This is another event that Holy Innocents and American Legion Post # 1711 started over 30 years ago. It has now become a Christmas tradition that our Special Friends look forward to every year.  It is an event that all here at Holy Innocents can take an enormous amount of pride in coordinating and leading.

We would like to thank the following volunteers who were involved in making this party a great success: Bob Wicelinski, Ed Scheid, Roger Weber, James Hines, Al Alagna, Dom Albano and family, Carmine Pulgrano and his son Matthew, our photographer Carl Bonsignore, and Jim Mussey all Brother Knights from the Holy Innocents Council.   Donna Murphy, Roxana Scheid, and Rose Schields of the Columbiettes. Past Grand Knights Bill Boyce, Tom Sepe, and Jim Mchale.  Sal Callensano from Maria Regina Council # 12533, Herman Stocker and Charles Fries from American Legion Post # 1711. Stu McKinney as always played a great Santa.  Bobby Patterson surprised us with a visit, playing Christmas songs on his bagpipes while leading our special friends around the gym in a Christmas parade. As always a special thank you to JJ Brady for all his help in making the party a success. Another special thank you to Phil Fasano the 8th grade Confirmation coordinator of St. Bernard’s Religious Education Department. He sent us 15 of the best volunteers we ever had.     

We would also like to thank store manager Romy Menta of Dollar Tree Store of Levittown for helping us supply the special friends with the special gift from Santa. A very special thank you to Ben Grinaldi of Villa Maria’s Restaurant for the pizza.  I would also like to thank the Catholic Daughters of America for donating soda and water to the party.

Wayne Murphy - Chairman