The Bay Ridge Community Council, which is celebrating its 65th anniversary, has announced this year that it will be honoring two highly regarded community leaders — Michael Long and Robert Howe — with its prestigious annual Civic Awards.
Long is the vice president of the Fort Hamilton Citizens Action Committee, president of the Board of Directors of the Holy Angels Catholic Academy and a member of the Bay Ridge Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District (BID).
Howe is the long time president of the Merchants of Third Avenue, a former member of Community School Board 20, and president of the Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst Beautification and Preservation Alliance.
The coveted awards will be formally presented by BRCC President Vincent Bocchino at the group’s 65th anniversary dinner dance on June 2, at Sirico’s Caterers, 8023 13th Avenue. Bocchino will also be receiving a presidential award to mark his two years of service at the helm of the council.
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We joined over 2,000 New Yorkers that participated in the Good Friday Way of the Cross over the Brooklyn Bridge. The procession started at St. James Cathedral-Basilica, 250 Cathedral Place, Brooklyn, with reflections, prayers, readings and hymns marking the first Station of the Cross. Then, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, the head of the Brooklyn Catholic Diocese and Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, walked behind cross-bearer Richard Vega, New York member of Communion and Liberation, to the Brooklyn Bridge.
The worshipers then stopped at the Brooklyn tower of the bridge for commemoration of the second Station of the Cross. The third station took place at City Hall Park, and the fourth station was held at Ground Zero, at the 9/11 Memorial Plaza, where FDNY Firefighter John Bartlett of Staten Island’s Engine Co. 167 became the cross-bearer. The fifth station and final prayers took place at St. Peter’s Church on Barclay Street in lower Manhattan.
Christopher Vath directed the Communion and Liberation Choir. Vath is known locally as the organist and music director of Bay Ridge’s St. Patrick’s Church.
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This past Saturday, it was Gerritsen Beach’s turn to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Its seventh annual Irish march kicked off at 1 p.m. from Whitney and Gerritsen Avenues. Among the pipe and drum bands were the FDNY Emerald Society Pipers, the Bay Ridge-based Clann Eireann pipe band and the Columbus Council Knights of Columbus Pipes and Drums. The lead musical unit was the Gerritsen Beach Marching Band. Decorated Marine Corps combat veteran George Broadhead was the 2016 grand marshal.
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