Thanks to everyone who entered our annual Valentine's Jelly Bean Counting Contest. Each of our three winners will receive a $50 gift certificate to the member store of their choice. Congratulations to Gabrielle, Jeff and Gabriel. These three people came closest to the actual number which was 2,295. Unfortunately, some people did not put their last names or phone numbers on their entry blank and so even if they were closer, we could not call them.

The Massapequa Park Merchants Association is pleased to be able to donate $1,000 to the Massapequa Cares Organization. This money will be used to purchase much-needed items for our veterans at the Northport Veterans Hospital. Saturday, April 5 will be Annual Greater Massapequa Day at the hospital and we are happy to be a part of it. Please contact Village Hall if you wish to donate anything for this day.

Our Merchants Association Scholarship Program is under way. We will be giving some "book money" to our members' employees who are currently attending school part time. We feel we want to do something for our many store or office members who participate in our organization all year long. It's a good feeling to help people.

Please help us do good things for our community. We all appreciate your shopping in our village. In these times, all of your local stores really need your business. Competition from the malls is fierce, and our private stores really need the support of the community in order to stay in business. Most of these shop owners are really hurting. The economy is very bad as you well know. Please support your local butcher, hardware store, florist, etc. We need you.