Festival Promotes Unity In The Community

Unity Day honorees and special guests following last year’s awards ceremony.

By Connor Beach
cbeach@longislandergroup.com

Students from school districts around the town of Huntington will join members of the community Saturday for the Unity in the Community Parade and Fair to celebrate Huntington Awareness Day.

Dolores Thompson and the Huntington Enrichment Center started Huntington Awareness Day in 2010 with the vision of creating an event that highlighted the “inclusivity, diversity and commonality of our town,” according to South Huntington Superintendent Dr. David Bennardo.

In the last few years several local school districts got involved to help grow the event and increase participation among students. Bennardo said South Huntington School Board President and Town Attorney Nicholas Ciappetta suggested that the district reach out to Thompson to co-sponsor the event.

“We are such a center of diversity and so proud of it in the town,” Bennardo said. “We were thrilled because it’s so much of what we’re about.”

The Huntington and South Huntington school districts were the first to become involved, but this year Harborfields, Elwood and Northport  school districts will also take part in the parade and fair that “stress the commonalities and the things that make us the same rather then the things that divide us.”

This year the parade kicks off at 11 a.m. from Huntington High School, and marchers head south on Oakwood Road to Stimson Middle School. The fair at Stimson Middle School will run until around 4 p.m., and feature games, bounce houses, food trucks and other activities.

“To me the parade is the most powerful visual representation of our mosaic of diversity in the Town of Huntington,” Bennardo said. “You’ll be able to look down Oakwood Road and see everything from a Huntington, South Huntington or Harborfields musician, to a Northport student advocate, to an Elwood teacher of diversity.”

After the parade, honorees from each of the school districts at the event will receive an award for their outstanding commitment to the community. The honorees come from all walks of like and range in age from 18 years old to nearly 90.

“There’s no other parade or event you’ll find that has students, businesses, clergy, administrators, teachers and police officers from so many different communities together in one place for one common cause,” Bennardo said.

Bennardo said he felt it was important for students to get involved in an event like Huntington Awareness Day because “students are open minded.”

He said, “By allowing the schools to become so involved, we gave a natural avenue for students to teach us about the importance of diversity and tolerance.”