Good News

A bright sunny day and the lure of old fashioned food and fun drew several hundred visitors to Greenlawn last weekend for the annual Pickle Festival.

Paws for a Cause, which raises money for the Long Island Against Domestic Violence nonprofit, invites families to bring their costumed pets and compete for awards.

The Long Island Native Plant Initiative celebrated the completion of a new nursery and seed production facility at the Sisters of St. Joseph campus in Brentwood this week.

The lifeguards were honored for their rescue of a 4-year-old boy at the Syosset-Woodbury Park pool earlier this month.

The matching grant for the maintenance facility is part of Nassau’s efforts to ensure the county’s museums and cultural institutions rebound from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The EOC will use the money to assist Suffolk County residents who lost income during the COVID-19 pandemic and were left out of various federal relief programs, including unemployment and pandemic benefits.

Canine Companions provides trained service dogs for adults, children and veterans with a variety of disabilities, free of charge to its clients.

The program, called Double Up Food Bucks, doubles the value of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that is spent at participating farmers markets, mobile markets, corner stores, small retail locations, farm stands and grocery stores.

The grant will be used to expand the FREEdom Garden, which provides a work readiness program that gives individuals hands-on agricultural skills that can prepare them for a variety of employment opportunities.

Since 2013, the effort has added up to more than 10,000 new and gently used sports gear items donated to the nonprofit.

NICE (Nassau Inter-County Express) Bus is now outfitting its 60-foot buses with front-end bicycle racks on selected routes.

The soon-to-open Topgolf entertainment center in Holtsville is seeking to hire staff and offering hiring bonuses of up to $1,000.

The effort, called “Power to Feed Long Island,” will organize food collection at six local supermarkets in July, August and September.

Stop & Shop’s Food for Friends campaign raised more than $2 million for its 12 regional food bank partners, breaking all previous years’ donation records.

The Allied Foundation Diaper Bank held a special event last week to celebrate the distribution of 1 million diapers donated to 40,000 low-income families across Long Island and the region since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A section of Boulevard Avenue was named Samuel Ballton Way to honor the former slave who became a successful cucumber farmer and was known as the “Pickle King.”

The program serves the communities and schools of Nassau and Suffolk counties to provide learning experiences about the world of astronomy.

The six-week program, to be held at three town parks, is open to children in kindergarten through seventh grade.

More than 5,500 athletes and coaches from all 50 states and the Caribbean will compete in the 2022 USA Games in Orlando.