San Remo Civic Association Honored With Service Award

The San Remo Civic Association was presented with the Lifetime Community Service Award last month at the Kings Park Chamber of Commerce Persons of the Year Dinner Dance.

"It was an honor to receive the award on behalf of the association," says San Remo Civic Association President Lorna Paine.

The San Remo Civic Association has been serving the San Remo community since 1949, but its roots actually date even farther back. The first traces of the organization lead back to the 1920s, when a lack of interested buyers for empty 20-foot-by-100-foot lots near the Nissequogue River and subscriptions to Italian newspaper Corriere D'America led to an enticing offer: Buy a lot for $250, get a one-year subscription; buy two lots, get a two-year subscription. The location--near the coast--bore a resemblance to a village on the Italian Riviera in Northern Italy, and the San Remo name was thus bestowed.

In 1926, the San Remo Property Owners Association was created to handle the influx of seasonal and year-round residents. As the number of year-round residents grew through the '40s, the need arose for an additional group to tend to the needs of the sprouting community. And so, in 1949, the San Remo Civic Association was born. Seven years later, in 1956, the two groups merged.

Paine, who joined the Association in 2002, says even to this day the same objective rings true: to watch out for the assets and interests of the San Remo community.

But the San Remo Civic Association doesn't just watch over its namesake community; it gives back in several ways. To date, the association has awarded more than $30,000 to students from the community. It regularly holds community events, like a cleanup of the Nissequogue riverfront and picnics near the river. And don't overlook fundraiser lunches at places like .

Those interested in joining the efforts of the San Remo Civic Association can attend the group's monthly meetings, held the third Thursday of each month (April 21 this month) at the Smithtown Landing Country Club. And if you needed an added incentive to assist at the May 7 Nissequogue River cleanup which begins at 9 a.m., Paine has one: there'll be free pizza at noon.

"Joining citizens together is the only way that things get done," Paine says. "Our country was founded on the principals of local citizens' involvement in community. They truly have the communities' best interest at heart. "