In the true spirit of the holiday season, various community groups gathered together last Friday night to help one another to help others. The Levittown Department Engine Company 3, for the 14th year, collected donations to buy food for the culinary arts students at Levittown Memorial Education Center to prepare for senior citizens in the community, who in turn donated toys for the Adopt-A-Family program.

Thomas Purcell, captain of Engine Company 3 explained that the company holds fund raisers, including a Sunday breakfast, to raise money for this annual event. This Thanksgiving Dinner, which began as a dinner for 100 has grown to the point where it had to be moved from the firehouse to the Levittown Memorial Education Center because the numbers have grown so much. Last year 280 seniors were served and this year the fire department was expecting approximately 300 seniors from the Levittown and East Meadow communities.

The seniors are asked, but not required to bring a toy donation for the Adopt-A-Family program which donates food, toys, and clothes to local churches and organizations for needy families within the Levittown community.

Although all of Engine Company 3 participates in the event, Purcell noted, "Andy Booth pretty much runs the whole thing."

Booth is a former captain of the department and puts this dinner together every year. Booth gives a lot of credit for the success of this program to the culinary arts students who spend the week prior to the dinner preparing the food. "There are not many schools around that can do what this school does. This school happens to be the best," said Booth.

Another partner in helping with the Thanksgiving Dinner is the Fire Department's Ladies Auxiliary who serve the food, wrap all the toys and separate the food for the food drives.

The members of the fire department who work to put this dinner together and are out there serving the seniors at the dinner must not be forgotten. "It's an honor for the members of the fire department to be serving the people who started this community," explained Booth, who added that this is not the only program that the fire department sponsors. The department also sponsors the Food Pantry at Wisdom Lane which provides food for needy families throughout the year. He noted that confidentiality is key with all of these programs and if a local family is given assistance during a tough time no one will find out about it.

This year's Thanksgiving Dinner was another success. The work of the 70 11th and 12th graders enrolled in the school district's culinary arts program who cooked for days before the event was appreciated by the seniors who had a good time socializing with friends while enjoying turkey dinners with all the trimmings.