Generally Speaking: Ragamuffins gear up for 50th Anniversary Parade

When the children’s annual Ragamuffin Parade steps up Bay Ridge’s Third Avenue on Saturday, October 1, it will mark the 50th anniversary of the colorful kiddie procession. As part of the celebration, 74th Street and Third Avenue will be co-named Ragamuffin Way, and the parade committee has opted to re-imagine its usual pre-parade fundraising luncheon, at which they honor the year’s grand marshal and “Ragamuffin Person of the Year,” as a commemorative gala at the Bay Ridge Manor. We’ll have more details here in the weeks ahead as plans are finalized.

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The Brooklyn Young Republican Club made a historic move by electing the first African American president since it was reportedly founded in 1880 by Seth Low. The new man at the helm of the young GOP’ers is Brandon Washington, a U.S. Army reservist who is attending Wagner College on Staten Island, and last year served as the executive director of the club. Other officers include Board Chair and past President Glenn Nocera, Vice President Moshe Muratov and Treasurer Paul Hanson.

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Vincent Gentile, not the councilmember, but the grand knight at the Archbishop John Hughes Council of the Knights of Columbus in Dyker Heights, has been tapped as the 2016 parade chairperson for the 111th annual Brooklyn American Independence Day Parade.

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A while back, when we were out and about covering the city’s annual Veterans Day Parade, we met Commander Corey Barker and his service dog Max. Barker heads the U.S. Navy’s Office of Information (East) located in midtown Manhattan. While Max routinely accompanies his owner to the office daily, on the day of the parade, Barler had to leave Max with a trusted friend, so he could be with the Secretary of the Navy on official business at the parade. The trusted friend turned out to be Bensonhurst resident and FDNY outreach coordinator Lynda Thomson. We hopped a ride with Lynda and Max and a bunch of vets aboard a FDNY High Water Transportation Truck.