By Louis Moreno
The Mineola Junior Fire Department held its 24th annual pasta dinner at the Mineola Community Center recently. Village residents came out in large numbers to support the junior fire department with pasta and other activities to entertain family and friends for the afternoon.
The afternoon was filled with meeting new people and discussing what it meant to be a member of the MJFD. The head advisor and former chief of the Mineola Fire Department Gary Mazur described the event as a reasonable and great way to “break bread” with the community. Mazur and the other advisors made the pasta dinner into an annual event with the support of the community to give thanks to the junior fire department for raising such amazing people, who grew to become a helping hand for the community and others.
Most juniors learned a lot while being in the program. Some of the former juniors moved on to the New Hyde Park Fire Department while other juniors had moved on to the Albertson Fire Department. A great number of them, however, made the jump to the Mineola Fire Department.
The juniors meet every Sunday to train and learn what they can to be a firefighter in order to protect their communities. The former junior members talked about their fond memories of being part of the junior fire department and highly recommend that more people should join. They also wanted to advise the new potential juniors that “it’s growing and getting better every year. It’s just the place to be.”
—Louis Moreno is a student at Mineola High School
