Cardinal Dolan comes to Wakefield

Wakefield Area News

By Mary V. Lauro

BRONX, NEW YORK, October 10- Hey! According to legend, the devil was once an angel too. Please bear that in mind as we praise 300 boys and girls who walked from St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Elementary School on Baychester Avenue to St. Frances of Rome Catholic Church on E. 236^th Street, a distance of 7 or 8 blocks. They walked quietly and swiftly, their uniforms accentuating their orderliness. It is true they were accompanied by some teachers, assistants and police, but their brown and black faces shone with purpose. They knew that something important, perhaps historic was going to take place. These mostly non-Catholic children were going to meet Cardinal Dolan.

Cardinal Dolan had come to St. Frances of Rome (SFR) to inaugurate the reopening of its school building on Barnes Avenue as annex to St. Francis of Assisi. The Barnes Avenue School had been closed since 2008. The annex will be used for kindergarten and pre-kindergarten children.

The new facility for preschoolers will be known as the Catherine Corry Early Childhood Academy. It is named in honor of the mother of Rev. Francis J. Corry, the pastor of SFR and administrator of the churches of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Anthony in Wakefield. The three parishes are collectively known as the Catholic Churches of Wakefield.

Cardinal Dolan is a special person. It is always a delight to be in his presence. His homilies are clear and concise. One is struck not by showmanship or pageantry but by an abiding humility which defines him. Nonetheless, with all due deference, our column is not about him but about the well behaved students that sat through the mass without a single sigh of boredom, hands clasped and bright eyes following the action on the altar.

The principal of this amazing school and its students is Mary Jane Helmrich. She said her classes usually hold 25 to 30 students, sometimes more. We mention this because our newspapers are full of reports regarding problems encountered in public schools from teacher inadequacy to student failures. More problematic is the lack of civility found between teachers and students as well as between the students themselves.

While the problems in our Public Schools are various and many, some are perfectly obvious to the layman. They are like a childhood disease which, unfortunately, sometimes persists into adulthood. They are lack of respect for others and lack of civility. It is these two elements of social order that are inculcated in a Catholic School education from Pre-K to graduation. It begins with dressing uniformly. Time is not spent on observing who wears what. Nor is time spent on imitating what is seen on TV. A school uniform emphasizes the principle of equality as does, indoctrination in civility.

As the body needs food, the brain needs to know. Remember that other myth: God forbid Adam and Eve to eat of the tree of knowledge. They ate one apple and haven't stopped chewing since. The brain loves to learn. Once the distractions are removed, children will learn.

Also necessary are caring parents. It is not cheap to send one's child to Catholic School. It is amazing how many non-Catholics choose to do so at great personal sacrifice. It is enormously sad that they must do so when they and we pay our share of taxes for education. It is sadden still for the children who do not receive a fundamentally sound education. What is the point of public education if it cannot vie with Catholic and private education?

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Bring on the Rings?

At the end the Yankees seem to have it all together as they await the next step

By Rich Mancuso

BRONX, NEW YORK, October 5- The Texas Rangers or the Baltimore Orioles are awaiting the New York Yankees Sunday night as the new wild card format this season has the lower seed teams hosting the higher seed in the divisional series. But, the Yankees don’t care where they go, or who they play.

Momentum has become a major player the last month or weeks of the baseball season. The Yankees have that right now, so similar to what the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals had in 2010, and last year. Their late season surges continued right to a World Series championship.

And, as every baseball or sports fan knows, a New York Yankees season is not complete, or a success, unless they bring a World Series trophy back to the Bronx. They finished with the best record in the American League, decided when they clinched their second straight division title Wednesday night with a sweep over the Boston Red Sox.

Home field advantage for the first two rounds of the post season goes to the Yankees with a 95-67 finish, second best in baseball to the Washington Nationals. Though sweeping the lowly Boston Red Sox to finish off, and scoring 14-runs in their final game, don’t make that a barometer that they will dominate from here on in.

This was the Red Sox. Not the Rangers, Athletics, Tigers, or the Orioles where pitching, with perhaps the exception of the Rangers collapse, won them games this time of year. The Yankees inconsistency of their pitching staff could be their obstacle as to getting a 28^th championship.

“Now the real season starts,” commented Derek Jeter, the Yankees captain who knows something about the meaning of October baseball with five World Series rings.

So, with a September that was one to remember, the Yankees had to fight to the end with Baltimore. The 27-time world champions are confident. Yes, momentum is on their side as the pitching and hitting have come together, as well as a healthy compliment of players off the disabled list.

The season of adversity, one key pitcher or starting player hindered by injuries hurt the Yankees as they struggled and surrendered a 10-game AL east divisional lead to the Orioles.

“This year we had to fight, scratch and claw,” said Nick Swisher who had his struggles and finished with a strong September.

The Yankees at one time or another this season, and Girardi utilized what he could from the roster, saw different players at third, first, in the outfield, at DH, and on the mound.

The losses of pitchers CC Sabathia, Andy Pettitte, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Brett Gardner, and other role players, for a short or extended period of time had an impact but they overcame the adversity.

That also included losing all-time saves leader Mariano Rivera, with a freak season ending injury in the outfield shagging fly balls prior to a game at Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City. Rafael Sorinao stepped in the closer role, and overall with 42 saves but had the tendency to throw the home run ball in the late going.

Gardner is back and could be on the post season roster, but getting on base and speed came when the Yankees acquired the able Ichiro Suzuki in the second half. Robinson Cano struggled, and the final three weeks the all-star second baseman had the highest hitting percentage in baseball.

The last seven years, New York has won the World Series once, so the obvious dynasty in baseball is a thing of the past with parity an obvious part of the game. However, as was the case with the Giants and Cardinals, pitching wins games this time of year.

“To have the best record and not know where you’re going is strange,” says Yankees manager Joe Girardi. They probably would prefer the Orioles. They split the 18-games between them and scored more runs. The Rangers, though struggling, know how to handle this time of year.

And when it comes to the Yankees and Rangers in October, Girardi is aware that Texas has come up short the last two years in failing to win the World Series, but the Yankees have never done well at the ballpark in Arlington in October baseball games.

The tentative starting rotation in the best- of- five opening round will be Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda, Pettitte, and Phil Hughes. It looks good, though Hughes has been ineffective in his last three starts and gives up the home run ball. Hughes getting the ball in a game three or four could be detrimental.

“The fact we struggled, we overcame the adversity, I am proud we are at this point,” says Girardi. Driving in the timely run has been the inconsistency and striking out to much, and Curtis Granderson had a team high in strike outs when he was not hitting the home run ball.

Just about every position player is liable to hit the ball out of the park. The Yankees finished 2012 with a club record in round trippers. But we saw something the past few weeks that started to develop.

The Yankees played small ball with the bunt, steal, and that produced some run production that helped them win some close games on the road. They finished four games over .500 away from the Bronx.

The team works out at Yankee Stadium early Friday evening and will watch the wild card game between the Orioles and Rangers. From the Bronx they will have the bags packed and ready to begin the next journey.

The new season begin Sunday evening. The quest with momentum is to bring championship number 28 to the Bronx in a few weeks.

E-Mail Rich Mancuso: Ring786@aol.com/ Facebook.com/Keep it in the Ring

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It Never Gets Old!

Yanks Clinch AL East

Once Again Head into Playoffs

By Howard Goldin

BRONX, NEW YORK, October 4- With one out in the bottom of the seventh inning, the giant scoreboard in Yankee Stadium displayed the final score of the 4-1 victory of the Rays over the Orioles. The Baltimore loss gave the A.L. East crown to the New York Yankees. The crowd of 47, 393 erupted in cheers, the standing ovation was followed by the chant of “Let’s Go Yankees”.

The excitement was augmented at 10:34 when Freddy Garcia struck out Ivan de Jesus to end a game in which the Yankees crushed the Boston Red Sox, 14-2 in their final game of the 2012 regular season.

Robinson Cano continued his extra torrid hitting during the final contest of the season. He went 4 for 4 with a walk in five trips to the plate. Cano drove in six runs to lead his team to victory, two on his 32^rd homer of the season on the first pitch he saw in the third, two more on the first pitch to him in the fifth, and an added two on a single in the sixth. The multi-hit game was the ninth straight for the second sacker. During those games, Cano hit safely 24 times in 39 at bats for a phenomenal .615 batting average. 

C.C. Sabathia said of Cano’s recent hitting, “Unbelievable, when he’s riding, he’s the best hitter in baseball.”

The Yankees leading home run hitter also belted two four baggers in the game. In his first trip to the plate in the third, Curtis Granderson hit the first pitch into the right field stands to score three runs. His 43^rd homer of the year came on a full-count pitch to lead-off the five run seventh. Although Grandy set a Yankees strike out record with 195, he led the club in runs batted in with 106. The honest and articulate outfielder said of being called a home run hitter, “Not at all, I just got lucky.” He also remarked, “There’s always room for improvement, no matter what your season was.”

The four home runs gave the Yanks 245 for a franchise record, breaking their previous single season high of 244. The club set a major league mark by hitting homers in 131 games during one season.

Cano and Granderson were not the only contributors to the pennant win. Yankees captain Derek Jeter’s single in the sixth raised to 34 the number of consecutive games in which he has reached base. The Yankee skipper praised his captain, “He’s exceeded everyone’s expectations. It’s truly remarkable. It’s one of the greatest seasons I’ve ever seen.”

Starter Hiroki Kuroda also did his part in the Yankees win. He earned his 16^th win of the season by hurling seven innings in which he yielded seven hits and two runs.

The Yanks will begin the ALDS on the road in either Maryland or Texas on Sunday facing the winner of the Wild Card playoff on Friday night between the Orioles and the Rangers. The Yankee brass must now decide on the composition of their postseason roster and starting rotation. They will have home field advantage in all American League games as they finished the season with the best won/loss mark in the league. This was the ninth time since 1998 that New York has had the best record in the A.L.

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Wakefield News: Homeless shelter #4

Wakefield News: Homeless shelter #4: Wakefield Area News By Mary V. Lauro BRONX, NEW YORK, October 1- "The moving finger writes and having writ moves on. "Not all...

Homeless shelter #4

Wakefield Area News

By Mary V. Lauro

BRONX, NEW YORK, October 1-"The moving finger writes and having writ moves on.

"Not all your tears of piety and wit can change half a line."

Those famous words are from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, an 11^th century Persian mathematician and poet. They came to mind when we first heard about the possibility of a fourth homeless shelter for Wakefield and read the very informative column in last week's NEWS by Rev. Richard Gorman, Chairman of CB 12. The column confirmed what we have been saying these past three years regarding the shelters except that when we were saying it we were treated as if we were trying to start World War III.

The fact is, if we had tried to start a war, we probably would not be dealing with three and possibly four shelters. Stop to think. These shelters are all being built or proposed for the sliver of Wakefield around White Plains Road. The section is a small slice of Senator Jeff Klein's district as it is for Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz and Councilman Oliver Koppell. So what do they care about us? Are they up in arms over what is happening in their district? Of course not. They are anxious to get rid of this pesky sliver in the new districts. What is amazing is that if they get rid of this sliver of Wakefield it will fall to the close-by districts of Senator Ruth Hassel Thompson, Assemblyman Carl Heastie and convicted councilman Larry Seabrook. We will not tell you which of these three, when informed by a constituent of the intention of Praxis Initiative to build supportive housing on White Plain Road opposite Food Town said, “The good news is, it is not in my district." With an attitude like that no wonder Mayor Bloomberg can do whatever he wants! With an attitude like that no wonder Wakefield may have to deal with four shelters. No help, not even sympathy for your neighbor?

Back in May 2009, we know that Bloomberg had slated the Muller Reserve Center for a homeless shelter even though everyone was pretending otherwise, and Councilman Koppell hoped he could get the National Guard moved into it. Naturally, when we heard Praxis wanted to build supportive housing on White Plains Road, we saw the handwriting on the wall. Our voice was dismissed as misguided and strident. When we ranted that providers of these shelters were out to make money, we were derided because they were doing God's work. When we made other discoveries, now so very evident, we encountered only insult.

The fourth possibility for a homeless shelter is 4453 White Plains Road, a new construction of 56-60 units originally intended as affordable housing. That is what we have told the many residents who called us because that is the information we had.

We understand that this fourth possibility is in its early stage. There are no plans or contracts yet with the proposer, the Acacia Network. Nonetheless, we strongly urge the Community Board to notify all our elected officials that the Board opposes such a plan and notifies all residents within a four block radius. We don't have the resources or we would do it ourselves.

It is of interest to us that when Praxis first surfaced we had suggested that it look into the lot which is now that fourth possible shelter. Praxis said it was too small. Well, here it is, not so small after all!

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Bronx Clergy Teaming Up with Joel Olstein to Feed the Children

By Michael Horowitz

BRONX, NEW YORK, September 28- The Bronx Clergy Task Force, spearheaded by Bishop Angelo Rosario, is teaming up with Rev. Joel Olstein, one of the nation's most widely known ministers, to support the nationwide Feed the Children initiative.

Ray Fraticelli, a chaplain who has been working with Bishop Rosario at the Church of God's Children, said the Clergy Task Force has, in recent months, been responsible for the delivery of much-needed food to impoverished families in the west Bronx and the delivery of food and toiletries to the Town and Country Shelter for Battered Women.

“One of the Clergy Task Force's main goals is to assure that children don't go to bed hungry,” Fraticelli stressed. “I get a tremendous sense of personal satisfaction by knowing that I am doing God's work.”

In recent months, the Bronx Clergy Coalition held a coat drive in which thousands of Bronxites received much-needed clothing during the winter months.

“We have pictures of people going into the coat drive with clothing that was barely in one piece and leaving with ski jackets and other winter coats to keep them warm,” Fraticelli stressed. We are not about glorifying ourselves; we're about meeting the real needs of real people.”

Bishop Rosario, for his part, pointed with pride to the fact that the Bronx Clergy Task Force played a key role in preventing the illegal eviction of the Futa Islamic Center from its mosque at Third Avenue and 166^th Street.

Fraticelli said that he will be outside of the Einstein Loop Community Center from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday as part of the city-wide Pray New York initiative.

“We will be there to offer comfort to those who need it,” Fraticelli said. “We will be there to try to address the spiritual and physical needs of those who seek us out.”

Fraticelli noted that the Bronx Clergy Task Force has an ongoing coat-collection effort. Coats are kept at the Church of God's Children in the lower level of the Dreiser Loop Shopping Center.

In recent weeks, the Dress Barn store in Pelham Manor has donated coats to the Bronx Clergy Task Force for future coat drives and for the task force's upcoming Dress for Success initiative among those seeking employment or those seeking better jobs.

To donate coats or to assist the Clergy Task Force in other ways, call (718) 790-9120.

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Stop laptop thieves by marking your items

NYPD Community Affairs Bureau 

Crime Prevention Section 

Weekly Crime Prevention Tip

Mark it . . Register it . . Keep it!

BRONX, NEW YORK, September 27- Almost 1/3 of all laptop thefts occur during the course of a burglary. Once a thief is in your home, small portable electronic items are easily removed and often easily sold. Would you buy a second-hand laptop if it had an NYPD ID number engraved on it?  

Engraving items makes it harder for criminals to dispose of valuables through dark-market channels, and may even deter theft. It can also help reunite you with your lost property.

The NYPD offers a free program – “Operation ID” - whereby a unique serial number is engraved on all portable valuable electronics and the owner’s information is registered with the Police Department. This program can be implemented by contacting your local Precinct's Crime Prevention Officer, or the Community Affairs Bureau direct at 646-610-5323

For more information on all of the programs we offer, or for additional crime prevention tips, please visit our website – www.nypdcommunityaffairs.org

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