The efforts of the Hicksville Youth Council to sustain its existence, financially, have been well documented in recent years. Most recently, they sent out a mailing to Hicksville residents looking for financial support. The response was nominal.

The HYC has been offering a wide range of programs to youths in Hicksville for the last 25 years. Its goal, according to its director, Thomas Bruno, is to help the kids through their adolescence.

"By offering them positive, structured, supervised programs hopefully we will be able to keep these kids from getting into trouble," said Bruno. "As much as kids hate structure, they need it. Many of the kids who join gangs do so because they are looking for some type of structure in their lives."

The need for a strong response to this fund drive is magnified by the uncertainty of traditional funding that has been keeping the HYC afloat.

"When you are dealing with government dollars everything is up in the air, especially now," said Bruno. "This year no one knows what is going to happen. Nassau County is in big trouble financially, and New York State has not even finalized a budget yet."

He remarked that the agency is OK for the coming year, relatively speaking, but with an operating budget the same as it was in 1990 and with over 200 more kids using the facility per year, the urgency for a new avenue of funding was never more evident.

"It [the fund drive] is always so critical because we are so underfunded as it is right now," said Bruno. "The money that we are getting barely covers the cost of what we are doing. If we had more money we would be able to expand our services tremendously."

The HYC is currently located in a small converted house at 175 Old Country Road. According to Bruno, the confining nature of the facility greatly hinders the services the HYC offers kids. He stated that it is not unusual to see 30-50 kids at the the building at the same time. "This building is not structurally sound enough, or large enough to accommodate those kinds of numbers. . . Once the kids come in the afternoons, it is impossible to get any counseling or administrative work done."

"Our goal at this point is to get out of this building, get into a place that is bigger so we can better service the kids of this community," said Bruno. "Right now we are overwhelmed with the number of kids who go through here each afternoon."

Bruno indicated that not much more is needed to secure a move into a bigger building. Bruno stated that with over 12,000 residents in Hicksville, if everyone gave one dollar, they would be able to do what needs to be done for the kids.

The letter addressed to Hicksville residents from Thomas Bruno, director of the Hicksville Youth Council, can be found on the "Letters to the Editor," page 20.