James Cammarata is the chairman of Oyster Festival 2002 and Rob Crafa, executive director of The Waterfront Center and Judy Wasilchuk are co-chairs of the event. Mr. Cammarata, an attorney and a member of Rotary of Oyster Bay, said the service group will be running the Oyster Festival. Mrs. Wasilchuk is also a Rotary member, and is on the Oyster Bay-East Norwich Board of Education as well as being a realtor for Cove Point Realty.

The Oyster Festival was begun by the Oyster Bay Chamber of Commerce and run by them for 17 years. Last year the Rotary of Oyster Bay ran the event for Festival 2001. Next year, 2002, the Rotary Club will again be running the festival. "We've had a discussion and the chamber indicated that they would like the Rotary Club to continue."

Mr. Cammarata explained, "The Chamber of Commerce came and said they feel that the broader public would be best suited to running the festival. They and the Rotary Club are working together to see how the chamber will take part."

"We are working out what level of responsibility each organization will have," said Daria Lamb, president of the Oyster Bay Chamber of Commerce, adding, "And there definitely will be an Oyster Festival."

"The chamber wants to participate and we are welcoming them on working on ways that will benefit the chamber and the overall community, as well as the not-for-profits," said Mr. Cammarata.

He said, "The Oyster Festival benefits first and foremost, all of the not-for-profits and is their major fundraiser for the year. The Rotary is a service organization and that is what we are dedicated to doing and will run the festival with that in mind. We want to see that this year's festival is profitable both to them, the chamber and the local businesses here in Oyster Bay.

"One of the real big things in making a successful festival last year was by expanding the area; closing additional streets and adding new attractions on the waterfront and we look forward to doing even more next year."

Mr. Cammarata said the Rotary Club asked him to chair the event. He and Judy Wasilchuk will have George Meyer and Tom Reardon, past co-chair of the event on the festival committee. Mr. Meyer is the current president of Rotary.

"Judy has a good reputation in town. She's a real hard worker and very creative in her thinking. The other co-chair for the event is Rob Crafa of The Waterfront Center, who will take charge of the water related events of the festival."

The Oyster Festival committee began meeting two weeks after the October event. "We are already working with a number of sponsors. We have had committee meetings already and tall ships have been contacted. We are looking to expand the maritime activities this year. A lot of positive things are happening," he said.

"We will be enforcing the open container law and keeping it a positive family community type of event. You couldn't ask for more positive support from Supervisor Venditto and his staff."

Again, he stressed that the success of last year's festival was a result of the very large cross section of the community that took part in creating the event, including not-for-profits and business alike. "Many businesses that in the past were concerned about the festival are looking forward to it next year," he said.

"All the people on the committee last year have volunteered to come back and have another successful year, so we are all looking forward to 2002."

Best of all, he said, "We are going to make sure Oyster Festival funds go back into the community."

Len Rothburg is producing a four or five-minute long promotional videotape to go out to all the sponsors on the 19th annual Oyster Festival which will have something for everyone. It will use video footage and still photos from last year and will have a musical background.

"We are working actively with Cablevision now. We are working with The Islanders, State Bank of Long Island, Fleet Bank and North Shore University Hospital at Syosset as well as several new sponsors," he said.

Taking a philosophical look at the festival, he said, "It's the right thing to do. Rotary is there to serve the community."