Memorial Day art and essay contest awards

Memorial Day celebrations began early for dozens of northeast Queens school kids at the Art and Essay Contest Awards Night sponsored by the Little Neck-Douglaston Memorial Day Parade Organization at Fort Totten, in Bayside on Friday, May 19, 2006. The event, held at the Ernie Pyle Reserve Center, drew about 200 students and their families. Some 39 awards were presented by State Senator Frank Padavan, for outstanding entries in Art, Essay, or Poetry created by students from kindergarten to eighth grade, who live or go to school in the Little Neck-Douglaston area.
Organization chair, James J. Rodgers along with contest committee co-chairs, Barbara Barba and Edith Bassom, worked with a score of parade volunteers to judge the 240 entries from 12 local public and private schools.
“This year we decided to match a theme for each grade to their course material, rather than a single theme, which we felt put the younger kids at a disadvantage,” Rodgers said.
Two Grand Prize winners, Deanna Mayo (Art) and Heather Dawn Cohen (Essay/Poetry) will travel to Washington DC with their parents for guided tours of the Capitol and the Pentagon, as part of their prizes. They and the other winners also received medals, certificates, and educational kits as part of the Parade organizations educational outreach program. After the awards, the participants were treated to pizza and soft drinks, compliments of the Douglaston Market.
Now in its 79th year, the Little Neck-Douglaston Memorial Day parade begins at 2 p.m. on Monday May 29, which makes it not only the largest, but also the last in the eastern U.S. This year the parade is dedicated to those who fell and those who served in Vietnam, the longest period of armed combat in U.S. history.
According to parade spokesperson Victor G. Mimoni, “We decided it was time to honor the Vietnam veterans. At the beginning of 1965, we had a few thousand advisors in Vietnam. By the summer of 1966, there were a quarter million Americans there, and it became our war.
Founded in 1927 by American Legion Post #103, the parade has outgrown the city limits, and begins on Jayson Ave. and Northern Boulevard in Great Neck, with lines of military, emergency service and private vehicles extending nearly a quarter mile further east.
A mile-and-a-half to the west, the parade ends at the St. Anastasia’s church courtyard, between Alameda Ave. and 245th St. on Northern Blvd. where parade volunteers traditionally distribute over 3000 free hot dogs and lemonade to the participants, and the public attending the parade.
This year’s Grand Marshal, Major General John R. Hawkins III, a veteran of Afghanistan. Hawkins, a graduate of Howard University, will be joined by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, the other parade honorees, including Douglaston Attorney James Wrynn, Carol Conslato of Con Ed, Walter Mugdan of the Udall’s Cove Preservation Committee, and James Flaherty representing Brown and Flaherty Mortgage Co.
The Parade Organization is a registered non-profit corporation, and prides itself on the fact that all of its Directors and Officers are unpaid local residents.