Mineola Chamber Holds Second Annual Movie Night

A total of at least 160 Mineola residents braved the warm weather – and a large bolt of heat-lighting – this past Friday night to attend the second annual “Movie Night in the Park,” at Wilson Field.

“Thankfully the weather’s cooling off just a little bit, I told them to turn up the A/C for us,” mayor Scott Strauss said, addressing the crowd, which was smaller when the gates opened at 7:30 p.m., but swelled to larger capacity as it got closer to showtime.

“All the businesses in town got together and decided we would do this,” Mineola Chamber of Commerce President Bill Greene said before the start of the film. “We want to spend our money in Mineola, we want to support Mineola.”

The free event was made possible with support from several local businesses including All Island Taxi, Computer Business Forms, Fat Guy Media, Transitional Computing, KTR Lighting, Piccola Bussola, DeFreitas & Minsky, Roslyn Savings Bank, RTS Printing, Tsontos Furs, the Valentine Agency and Willis Hobbies.

The chamber had attempted to get several local fitness centers and gyms to come and do demonstrations, but none were present at the event. The Mineola Junior Fire Department was also selling hot dogs and sodas for donations for their organization.

The Mineola Chamber of Commerce had asked residents to vote on what movie they will be showing, with voters settling on “Despicable Me” starring Steve Carell as Gru, the Russian-accented villian-turned father of three adopted girls, leading the way with 57 percent of the vote. A sequel to the Dreamworks animated comedy is due out in theaters in July.

Votes were tallied via the newly revamped chamber website, which went live in June, on a dedicated page. Other choices included recent animated movies “Wreck-it Ralph” or the classic 80’s movie “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.”
Last year the chamber showed the animated adaptation of the Dr. Seuss book “The Lorax” starring Danny DeVito.

“These gentlemen, most of them do not live in Mineola,” Strauss said of the business owners. “They work here and they’re obviously spending their time here to make Mineola a little bit better for all of us.”

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