When beloved photographer Victoria Pendzick isn't snapping photos, she's dancing! Here she struts her stuff with FA grievance officer Dante Morelli. (photo by Chris Pendzick)

Was it the bacon bar?

The Apple watch?

The big band dancing, the savory dinner offerings, the chocolate fountains, the ice cream station, the bidding war?

What was your favorite part of this year's FA holiday party?

Dining and donating

For the FA officers, it might have been the fact that our efforts played a role in raising $3,000 for our three campus food pantries, which provide indispensable assistance to students experiencing food insecurity.

In addition to our annual $1,200 in donations ($400 to each campus pantry), our culinary arts faculty and students offered to donate a catered four-course at-home dinner as a holiday party auction item, and FA Executive Vice President Sean Tvelia suggested that proceeds benefit our campus food pantries.

	FA President Kevin Peterman poses with, from left, Suffolk County Legislator DuWayne Gregory, SCCC President Shaun McKay and College General Counsel Lou Petrizzo. (photo by Victoria Pendzick)

At the party, a heated bidding war started at $600 but came to an abrupt halt with a $1,200 bid by college counsel Lou Petrizzo. Thank you, Lou, for your generous donation, and we hope you enjoy that lovely dinner.

The remaining $600 donation came as a complete surprise to us all, as SCCC President Shaun McKay happened to be the lucky winner of our annual 50/50 raffle. He immediately came up to the podium, accepted the winnings and announced that he was donating the entire amount to the campus food pantries to supplement the amount raised in our culinary arts dinner auction. Thank you, Dr. McKay!

Thank yous all around

Our holiday party guests also applauded this year's retirees, as the FA thanked them for their years of service and sent them off with well wishes for a long, happy and healthy retirement:

We are also thankful to our holiday party committee this year, which is perennially headed up by our office manager Anita Greifenstein. The party simply would not happen without Anita, and this year's party really was the best. Thank you, Anita; you've outdone yourself!

Committee members included Naheda Al-Hihi, Maria Contreras Hernandez, Rich Lauria, Lorraine Perdomo, Bruce Seger, Marshal Stein and Jane-Marie Wright.

Finally we'd be remiss not to extend our gratitude to these generous groups and organizations that donated the following raffle prizes this year:

As always, we greatly appreciate your generosity!

Below are a few photos from this year's FA holiday party; see others by college photographer Victoria Pendzick on the SCCC Media website.

We love to see our FA retirees come to the holiday party and dance the night away! With their spouses, from left, are retirees Pete Herron, Regina McEneaney and Bud Macy.
Math and science faculty surround retiree George Fortunato (seated at table, second from left) with merriment.	Lorraine Perdomo, center, enjoys the party with Carl Corry, left, and Darhiel De Leon, right.
Four couples pausing on the dance floor for a photo include, from left, Matt and Kristi Pappas, Scott and Kelly Mandia, Joe Bernat and Katelynn DeLuca, and Sean Tvelia and Cynthia Eaton.