From left to right:

Deputy Mayor Kevin Fitzgerald, Mayor Thomas Tweedy, Trustee Lynn Pombonyo, Kiwanis Lieutenant Governor Kathy Levinson, Kiwanis Member Dennis Winnie, Police Commissioner Stephen McAllister, Kiwanis Member John Gridley, Trustee Dominick Longobardi and Trustee Archie Cheng.

Prior to the start of the January 17, 2017 Board Meeting, John Gridley of The Kiwanis Club of Floral Park along with Dennis Winnie and Kathy Levinson, the Lieutenant Governor of Kiwanis, presented Police Commissioner Stephen McAllister with a pediatric trauma kit. The idea for supplying trauma kits to local communities came about when in 1990, Avianca Airline Flight #52 crashed on Long Island’s North Shore and there was a lack of pediatric emergency equipment on responding ambulances. Eleanor Lalena spearheaded this effort by calling a meeting of 35 of her friends and neighbors at the Port Washington Yacht Club. Ms. Lalena proposed the formation of an organization to raise money, purchase and distribute pediatric emergency trauma kits, including child-size body boards. More than 400 of these kits have been distributed to Fire Department EMT Units throughout the New York area and in Florida. This group of dedicated women, known as “Friends of Kiwanis Pediatric Trauma Center at North Shore University Hospital” recognized the need to improve the outcome for children who are involved in serious accidents. Mayor Tweedy thanked The Kiwanis Club for making this important and generous donation to Floral Park and said it would be put to good use by our first responders who answer more than 1,000 calls yearly from Floral Park residents, some of which, unfortunately, involve children.