Author: Dan Rose

Assemblyman Ron Kim, former Assemblywoman Ellen Young and more than 20 small businesses and nonprofits teamed up to hand out more than 60,000 pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) today at Flushing Library.

The PPE was donated by GuangXi Overseas Chinese Kind Foundation, American Guanxi Federal Association and the American Chinese Asean Chamber of Commerce.

“With the pending reopening of local small businesses and nonprofit organizations serving the Flushing community, it is very important that they get the necessary PPE for their workers and staff,” Kim said.

Local businesses can also text 646-879-3728 with their names and address to request protective masks.

Organizations that participated in the distribution event included:

• CPC NanShan Senior Center
• Flushing Senior Day Care
• Taiwan Center Senior Center
• Nanoom House
• Qingdao Restaurant
• Malaysian United Group
• Holly Civic Association/Evergreen Community Garden
• Hindu Temple Society of North America
• Ok Ryan Restaurant
• BAPS Swaminarayan Temple
• Shri Shirdi Saibaba Temple
• Eagle Senior Daycare Center
• Evergreen Senior Center
• Bland Houses Resident Association

Who says you can’t get married during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Last week, Assemblywoman Nily Rozic officiated a socially-distanced wedding ceremony for Tony Jin and Yunyi Bao at Fort Totten Park in Bayside.

The constituents’s original wedding was cancelled due to the pandemic, so they reached out to the Fresh Meadows lawmaker to officiate through Project Cupid, which allows for remote weddings during the pandemic.

 

“Even the coronavirus cannot stop Cupid,” Rozic says. “Even during the hardest of times, I was honored to spread a little joy and hope for this Queens couple.”

Learn more about Project Cupid here.

Having made the transition from classroom learning to all-online classes, Queens College is still enrolling students for its summer session.

The college is offering more than 650 online courses in four different sessions between June 1 and August 6.

The classes are open to students earning degree credits as well as adult learners working toward professional credentials.

Students may earn a total of 15 credits over the four sessions. Summer Session students will have access to the virtual library and live technical support.

Registration is open at qc.cuny.edu/summer.

Students have until June 27 to enroll in summer courses.

This upcoming week, Councilman Peter Koo is teaming up with the Real Estate Board of New York, Queens Chamber of Commerce and the Flushing BID to host a series of four multi-lingual webinars for building owners, managers and real estate brokers.

The webinars will be split into two parts, both translated into Korean and Chinese. They are:

• Navigating COVID-19 Relief for Building Owners & Managers
• Relief for Real Estate Brokers & Agents during COVID-19

Here’s the schedule of webinars:

• Part 1 – Building owners and managers in English/ Korean/ 한국어/ 韓文(Wednesday, 5/20 at 2 p.m.)

• Part 2 – Real estate Agents and Brokers in English/ Korean/ 한국어/ 韓文(Wednesday, 5/20 at 3:30 p.m.)

• Part 1 – Building owners and managers in English/ Chinese/ 중국어/ 中文(Friday, 5/22 at 11 a.m.)

• Part 2 – Real estate Agents and Brokers in English/ Chinese/ 중국어/ 中文 (Friday, 5/22 at 12:30 p.m.)

To register for the webinars in advance, please fill out this form.

The next Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey, is a pastor who grew up in Whitestone.

On April 15, Pope Francis announced that Reverend Kevin Sweeney, pastor of St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Sunset Park, will begin his minister in Paterson later this year.

Sweeney, 50, grew up in St. Luke’s parish in Whitestone. He attended Cathedral Prep from 1984 to 1988, and was a star on the school’s baseball team. He was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2013.

After graduation, Sweeney entered the Cathedral Seminary House of Formation in Douglaston and studied at St. John’s University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy.

He later received his master of divinity in theology from the Seminary of Immaculate Conception in Huntington.

Sweeney was ordained a priest of the Brooklyn Diocese in 1997, serving at St. Nicholas of Tolentine in Jamaica and Our Lady of Sorrow in Corona. He was appointed as pastor of St. Michael’s Parish in 2010.

After recovering from COVID-19 last month, Councilman Barry Grodenchik has been staying active in the eastern Queens community.

Last week, the Queens councilman joined Commonpoint Queens Sam Field Center in Little Neck to deliver meals to homebound seniors and people with compromised immune systems. He delivered meals to six households in Little Neck.

The Commonpoint center has shut its doors, but not its business of serving the community.

“It was my honor to volunteer for Commonpoint Queens delivering food to residents of Eastern Queens,” Grodenchik said. “I thank Commonpoint for the tens of thousands of meals that it has delivered to seniors across Queens County and for all that the agency continues to do.

New York state officials brought COVID-19 antibody testing to Flushing over the weekend, Congresswoman Grace Meng announced today.

The testing site conducted almost 200 random tests of local residents each day – 179 on Friday and 183 on Saturday. The tests were performed throughout the morning and afternoon.

Participants had their blood samples drawn from their fingers for the test.

“This antibody testing is an important tool in our fight against COVID-19,” Meng said. “It is critical to know how many New Yorkers have been infected with the virus in order to help with reopening our state.”

Bourbon Street, a Cajun restaurant located at 40-12 Bell Boulevard in Bayside, has set up a GoFundMe online fundraiser.

The campaign is collecting money to provide meals for frontline workers in Queens, Manhattan and Long Island hospitals that are battling the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can find the link here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/food-for-the-fearless

Support Bourbon Street’s efforts and pay it forward!