Nabe remembers ‘Katy’

Caitlyn Grogan was an honor student at Archbishop Molloy High School and the pride of the F.C. New York United Tigers girls soccer team, until she was run down by a car and killed on a tournament trip to Tampa, FL in February.
The 18-year-old graduate of Sacred Heart School in Bayside is being remembered in a scholarship fund established by her parents, Terrance and Teresa. “One of the very first business sponsors to step up was Gidon [Pesso],” said Terrance, speaking of the owner of Pesso’s Italian Ices at 203-20 35th Avenue.
Pesso’s store, which also sells ice cream, gelati and other confections, is something of a modern day “malt shoppe,” a place where kids, including “Katy” as she was called, regularly congregate. “She was a great kid,” Pesso said, the first among many to so remember her.
Although reluctant to discuss details, Pesso devoted a portion of his register from 7 to 10 p.m. on Tuesday, May 20 toward the fund.
“It was a pretty good day,” he said, although a check of the weather showed it to be cool and rainy - not exactly ice cream weather. “We got a couple of contributions, and I rounded the number up out of my own pocket,” he said dismissively, of the $500 check he delivered to the Grogans.
To further support the “Katy Grogan Scholarship Fund,” her determined parents held a “Walk-a-thon” at Raymond O’Connor Park in Bayside, on Wednesday, May 28.
“We hope one day to be able to give a full scholarship to Molloy for a Sacred Heart graduate that might otherwise not be able to afford it,” Terrance said.
The smallish park, across Corporal Kennedy Street from Bayside High School, contains a soccer field, with a path surrounding it.
“This is where I first coached Katy, when she was in kindergarten,” her father recalled, as his wife sold nearly 150 light blue tee-shirts commemorating their newly-established fund, to a steady stream of Katy’s friends and well-wishers.
“This is our way of keeping her memory alive,” Teresa offered, as she gave motherly advice on whether large or extra-large was the wiser choice for another friend of her departed daughter.
As he surveyed the growing crowd of well-wishers and participants, which would grow to more than 200 by all accounts, Terrance was greeted warmly by Caitlin Kakavis, who had met Caitlin Grogan in the first grade.
“She was the greatest,” Kakavis affirmed. “When they realized they had the same name, they became best friends all through school,” Terrance recounted, “She’s like another daughter to us.” In a moment, Kakavis was gone, to do her laps in tribute.
In the last few days, the Grogans heard from state police officials in Florida that the 23-year-old driver of the car which took their daughter on February 15 will be not be charged in her death.
According to State Police Lieutenant M.D. Hensely, “Homicide detectives determined that the pedestrians were not in the crosswalk, and stepped in front of the vehicle.”
But the Grogans are looking forward, not back.
As scores of friends and well-wishers turned out in support of her namesake scholarship fund, Katy’s younger siblings, sister Kelly, 10 and brother Terrance, 13, were on the field where she once practiced, playing “the beautiful game.”