Hundreds of local residents gathered at the Jerusalem Avenue Pool and Community Park at the East Village Green in Levittown to enjoy the fourth annual Levittown Community Council's Lazy Days of Summer Picnic. Residents enjoyed several summer activities including swimming, relaxing, games and more last Saturday, July 21 at the event.

According to Louise Cassano, president of the Levittown Community Council, the event is held each year to promote a sense of community and to bring residents closer together.

Among the activities available to residents at the picnic were a petting zoo, pony rides, face painting, games for toddlers and basketball competition for teens and adults. A local self-defense school demonstrated techniques to picnic-goers. In addition, community organizations were on hand to provide information on their activities.

A yearly tradition at the Lazy Days Picnic is the bake off contest, where residents bake their favorite baked goods and enter to win a prize. Those who entered the contest had their cakes judged by a panel of volunteers. The winner of this year's contest was Sue Giurco, who baked a cranberry sour cream crumble. According to Giurco, this is the first time she tried out this recipe and she was certainly glad she did when she was presented with the first-place prize, a basket filled with kitchen items to assist her in future baking endeavors. All other winners of the bakeoff were presented with prize ribbons and a family four-pack of tickets to the Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages in Stony Brook.

Since the event is held free of charge each year, the Levittown Community Council raised money last year to be able to hold the event by selling Levittown Monopoly games to local residents and businesses. Local corporations were given the opportunity to purchase a space on the game for various fees and residents were also, for a nominal fee, able to purchase a spot in the center of the board for their name to appear.

According to Cassano, the fundraiser was a huge success last year and the Community Council relied on the money generated from the games being sold to run their summer picnic. In addition, the Community Council received contributions from the Levittown Chamber of Commerce, who provided them with the money to purchase the face painting children enjoyed throughout the day.

"That was the intention of running that fund raiser," Cassano said, "to be able to hold this great picnic for our community."

Cassano added that she was very happy in how the event turned out. "It was a huge success, we were very delighted by the outcome...especially the weather. We had a beautiful day," she said. "Everybody seemed to have a very good time, we had a wonderful turnout."

The Levittown Community Council is an umbrella group of residents and community organizations in Levittown and the surrounding area. Its purpose is to develop and maintain pride and unity within the community by working collaboratively to support the work of local organizations. For more information on the Levittown Community Council, contact Chairperson Donna Ryan at 731-1999 or President Louise Cassano at 735-5901.