The Farmingville Hills Park came alive again this Tuesday with a crowd nearly double in size to sweat the day out to some high-energy salsa, merengue, cha-cha, samba, hip-hop and belly dancing moves a la Kids Zumba as part of the Summer Family Fun Series.  

Fun for the whole family, little girls wiggled in their dance class outfits as mom and dad joined in on the party. There was even a pick up game of football in the back of the field for the brothers who assumingly got dragged along.

Instructor Bobbi Ann DePierro brought the Latin sensation to Farmingville as she swayed and boogied her way through the lines of community members. A close friend visiting Florida from Venezuela showed DePeirro a zumba tape and she has been hooked ever since. Never having taken a class, she immediately signed up to teach. This was in 2007 and DePierro now teaches 15 classes a week including zumba gold for those 55 and older, zumba atomic kids and zumba toning.

Her partner, Greg Hermantin, who just moved back to the area from Florida, took classes for 14 months and has been teaching for about three. Hermantin, who's got the moves, found DePierro on her zumba website and is happy to be a part of zumba kids at Farmingville Hills Park.

The hot and sweaty kids, and their parents, drove a few hundred feet to Ralph's Italian Ices and were greeted by a free ice courtesy of owner Patrick Armetta. Armetta, who grew up in the area since 1972 and is a Sachem graduate class of 1984, is willing to do anything that benefits the children of Farmingville and the community as a whole. Although he currently resides in Central Islip, his business, and his heart, are in Farmingville. When the FRA asked him to help he was all for it.

"It's a great area and its good to see something good going on here," said Armetta. "Farmingville tends to get a lot of bad publicity but this really is a good neighborhood, the park has been there for years and if they (FRA) can make something work I'm all for it. The kids are my best customer."

Next week the Farmingville Hills Park will host kids yoga at 6:30 p.m.