Dozens of Long Islanders celebrated “Peace Day” in downtown Hempstead on Saturday to call attention to three recent shootings in the village, including a Sept. 21 killing during a card game that turned violent.

The event, sponsored by a Garden City Children and Families Association program called Should Never Use Guns (SNUG), also shared information about programs designed to reduce violence and provide support for children and families in crisis.

“Three shootings, three weeks in a row,” said Matthew Harris, program manager for the Hempstead SNUG. “There hasn’t been an awareness in the community, so we thought it was necessary to hold this event to spread awareness about the recent increase in violence in the neighborhood.”

The first shooting occurred in September, when Maurice Sinclair Thomas, 39, was fatally shot during an argument in a parking lot on Yale Street in Hempstead. Thomas, according to Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly, had been playing cards with friends when he got into an argument with Kane Moore, 30, of Hempstead.

Moore fled the scene and was arrested Oct. 21 in Detroit by members of the Detroit Police Department and the US Marshals Fugitive Task Force. Moore was extradited to Nassau on October 31. He pleaded not guilty before Nassau Judge Caryn Fink on Nov. 1 to second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

Two nonfatal shootings occurred over the next two weekends, Harris said.

SNUG’s outreach team uses information from residents, community leaders and social media – wherever they can get it – to intervene before bullets fly and blood is spilled.

“We work to reduce gun violence by mediating conflicts with those who are at the highest risk of shooting someone and being shot,” Harris said. “That’s what we do.”

SNUG calls its workers “credible messengers”. Harris said they are deeply familiar with the community, which makes it easier to get information about emerging conflicts.

“They’ve had experiences that have qualified them for this role,” Harris said, pointing to a group of young men wearing purple hoodies that read “Peace Day” on the back.

The several dozen people who attended the Day of Peace, held in the parking lot of the Nassau Mental Health Association, sipped drinks and ate snacks while music blared from a DJ speaker.

Many of the speakers at Saturday’s event discussed how gun violence has torn families and communities apart.

Richard Paul, senior intervention counselor for the Uniondale-based violence prevention organization STRONG Youth, spoke about the pain families feel when loved ones are incarcerated for acts of violence.

“Nobody wants to tell you they haven’t seen their brother in eight years because he’s doing time in a state penitentiary,” Paul said.

Longtime Hempstead community activist Valerie McFadden told the crowd that at 61, she was ready to scale back her advocacy work. She told the young people in the crowd that older people “failed you”.

“I did not produce a voice for you,” she said. “We don’t have Martin Luther Kings, Malcolm X, nothing. But I look at a few.”

With that, McFadden told a group of young men to climb onto a small platform behind her. Then he told the young people that it was time to get down to business.

“It’s time to step up,” McFadden ordered the youngsters. “And take control of what happens in your community and your world.”