Members of the Garden City clergy and Village officials An illustrious group of Garden City officials were special guests at the December 14th meeting of the Garden City Clergy Fellowship (GCCF). This meeting took place at the Garden City Hotel, which generously hosted the event and provided a sumptuous breakfast.

The officials included: Robert Schoelle, Village Administrator; Robert Feirsen, Superintendent of Schools; Hank Hardy, Garden City High School Principal; Peter Osroff, Garden City Middle School Principal; Lori Kuster, Garden City High School Social Worker; Noreen Bonagura, Garden City Middle School Social Worker; Rabbi Barry Schwartz, Jewish Chaplain at Adelphi University; and Meg Dooley and Meg Monnahan, who are members of the Garden City Community Council on Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention. Each official offered their views of how the Village and/or schools have been doing and what have been the notable accomplishments over the past year. They also shared what they envision will take place in 2006 and what challenges they see that need to be addressed.

The clergy in attendance included: Deacon Jack McGowan, formerly Mayor of Garden City and deacon serving Roman Catholic churches in Elmont and Hicksville; Deacon George Browne of St. Anne's Roman Catholic Church; The Rev. Wanda Lawry Hughes, GCCF President and Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Garden City; The Rev. Debra Low-Skinner, GCCF Vice-President and Rector of Christ Episcopal Church; The Rev. Jim Adelmann, GCCF Treasurer and Senior Pastor of the Garden City Community Church; The Rev. Lynn Sullivan and Ian Rottenberg of the Garden City Community Church; Rabbi Linda Henry Goodman of the Garden City Jewish Center; Dr. Anne Klaeysen, Leader of the Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island; The Rev. Bill Harmon, Senior Pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection; The Venerable Theodore Bean, Provost of the Cathedral of the Incarnation; The Rev. Joseph Pae, Assistant Priest at the Cathedral of the Incarnation.

The Garden City Clergy Fellowship thanks the management and staff of the Garden City Hotel for their generosity. This is the fifth year in a row that the Garden City Hotel has hosted the December meeting of the GCCF. This tradition started in 2001, as the Hotel's way of showing thanks to the local clergy for their many good works benefiting the local community.