Greenwood Lake’s Casino Night draws large crowd

Area residents packed into the American Legion Post in Greenwood Lake on Friday, Nov. 17 to try their luck at Casino Night, one of the first fundraising events for the Greenwood Lake centennial celebration throughout 2024.

“It was a fundraiser, it involved gambling, I was all in,” said Tara Sciuto, one of the many people attracted to the event that featured blackjack, three-card poker, craps and roulette.

Tickets included $50 in playing chips, hors d’oeuvres, desserts and nonalcoholic beverages.

Professional dealers ran the tables and engaged the crowd, who aimed to apply their winnings to luxury prizes, including a pontoon boat rental, luxury vacation rental, luxury skin care treatment, camping equipment, fine art, a Blackstone griddle, culinary experiences and many fine art creations by locally renown artists.

The Legion’s cash bar afforded the option of adult beverages for many of the guests.

It was the end of the work week and going out for the night had the right appeal.

“I just wanted to have some fun and Casino Night sounded like a good time. It’s for the centennial,” said West Milford resident Kellie Zimmermann.

“It’s a Friday night, and it sounded like fun,” added her friend Joan O’Daly of Greenwood Lake.

The event, from 7 to 11 p.m., helped to generate enthusiasm for a year-long series of celebratory events that will include trivia nights, historical lectures, parades, fireworks, live performances, tributes to baseball great Babe Ruth and boxing great Joe Louis, reunions, and time capsule revelations.

The village is loaded with stories about celebrities and sports figures from New York City who lived, cavorted and trained at facilities in the community since its founding in 1924.

In a recent digital edition of Chronogram magazine, author Jane Anderson wrote, “On February 9, 1936, spectators gathered on the ice to see something no one had ever seen: An airplane, roughly six feet from nose to tail, with a wider wingspan, sat on a triangular steel structure, its nose pointed towards the New Jersey end of the lake. In fact, it was a rocket with wings, powered by liquid oxygen and denatured alcohol. Inside asbestos bags in its nose were 6,148 pieces of mail. The goal? To have the first airmail delivered over state lines by rocket.”

Each era made its impact on Greenwood Lake: “The 1950s brought a slew of bars and nightclubs to Greenwood Lake. In New Jersey, the drinking age was 21 at the time. In New York, drinkers could be 18. Hence, the 50 or so establishments within a five-mile radius in Greenwood Lake were packed on Friday and Saturday nights.

“The couple of topless girl bands at the lake could have contributed to its popularity as well. Unproven legend has it that the mafia couldn’t resist the gold mine that was Greenwood Lake and held ownership in many of those bars,” Anderson added.

Sponsorship opportunities are available for many of the region’s businesses and organizations throughout the coming months, including a walking tour of two dozen prominent historical landmarks throughout the village.

For information about upcoming centennial events, go online to GWLCentennial.org