Photo Courtesy of flickr.com/Doug Brown
Turkey, goose, tofu, or turducken, as you have your fill this holiday, we at The Forum hope you will stay mindful of those in our community who are less fortunate, as well as those who serve and protect us all.
We’re giving thanks this year for people that have been there for The Forum in one way or the other: by helping to fund our work or by bettering the communities in which we live and work in big ways and small. Specifically we are thankful to the Allen Family, whom we feel particularly fortunate to have gotten to know through little Valentina’s brave fight. We are thankful to Angelo Gurino, who in Ragtime offers us an alternative, small-business style store from which to buy groceries of the highest quality. We are thankful for NYFAC for all the good work they do every single day. We are grateful to our local NYPD and other law enforcement who live in the neighborhood and protect us on a day-to-day basis – Deputy Inspector Jeff Schiff, Captain John Ganley, Lieutenant Frank DiPreta, Community Affairs Officer Brenda Reddick, and Community Affairs Det. Kenny Zorn in the 106, among many others. We’re thankful to those at DSNY who strive in good faith though who are perhaps not always successful in keeping our neighborhoods clean and free of refuse. We’re grateful to Bill Kelly and Gauthier, Houghtaling, and Williams, lawyers working hard to recoup funds for Sandy victims who are still, three years later, struggling to rebuild and repair from Sandy’s wrath.
We’re thankful to Charlie and everyone at the Ozone Howard Little League. We’re thankful to Joann Ariola and the Howard Beach-Lindenwood Civic, Dan Mundy and the Broad Channel Civic, Roger Gendron of the New Hamilton Beach Civic as well as the other civics we regularly attend in the area. We’re grateful to the local schools educating our children: PS 100, PS 146, and in particular PS 316 Queens Explorers, the teachers and staff at which work tirelessly to serve our kids and our community. We’d like to thank State Senator Joe Addabbo, Jr. and staff, Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder and Staff, Councilman Eric Ulrich and staff, Senator Charles Schumer and staff, and Mayor Bill de Blasio and staff for their responsiveness to us and for keeping us abreast of their work. We’re grateful to Queens DA Richard Brown. And to the veterinarians, like those at Veterinary Care Unlimited, and other animal care givers and rescuers — like Bobbi and the Strays — that are doing more than they know to better our world.
We want to thank J.P. at Trumbull printing and Clem, who handles our distribution. We’re thankful for our “old faithful” advertisers, like Ace Hardware, Lindenwood Liquors, Sapienza’s, Bruno Ristorante, JYD, All American Deli & Company, Russo’s On the Bay, Sonny’s Collision, Catherine Stanton, Cross Bay Chemist, and Resorts World Casino, among others. We’re also thankful for those who only occasionally advertise with us, and for those whose calls we are yet to take. To our frequent letter-writers: Larry Penner, Robert LaRosa, and in particular Anthony Pilla, who writes all his letters by hand and faxes them; our fax machine is currently on the fritz, and his letters haven’t gotten in for the past couple of weeks. (Giving) thanks for your patience. To those realtors who regularly advertise: Maria Trinceri, Carolyn DeFalco, Tom LaVecchia, and Angela Barillaro. To the businesses and firms who publish court-ordered LLC notices with us, thank you. We know you have to, but we’re still grateful, particularly when we are short-staffed and can’t get the affidavits out to you as quickly as we’d like.
We’re especially thankful to our readers, without whom the purpose of putting together a paper every week would obviously be null. Your loyalty over the years can’t be beat, and we remain humbled by the support.
We’re thankful to the children in our lives who help to put things into perspective and remind us what’s important – Gianna, Aidan, Nina, and Angelo, and for the entire Cusenza family, for giving us a little bit of Michael – probably more than they care to give – every week. And most of all to Teresa Gulino, a saint among women.
Happy Thanksgiving.
