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COURIER L 12 IFE, SEPT. 27-OCT. 3, 2019
Marine Parkers refurbish
memorial to fallen local
Before and after shots of a memorial bench defaced in Marine Park that locals repaired
earlier this month. Photo by Michael Carlin
BY CHANDLER KIDD
Community members donated time
and resources to refurbish a memorial
bench in Marine Park honoring a young
man who died there following a desperate
search in 2015.
Vandals had defaced the tribute
to late Marine Park resident Brian
Gewirtz, scrawling “penis” and other
slogans across the memorial bench,
while the Parks Department failed to
live up to promises to maintain the
bench, leaving it up to kind-hearted
locals to clean the mess, according to
Gewirtz’s mother.
“We put $2,500 into his memorial
bench and Parks was supposed to keep
up with it, but it was the community
who got together and helped clean it up,”
said Kathleen Lunz-Gewirtz.
Kathleen Lunz-Gewirtz and her husband
Steven Gewirtz worked with local
elected offi cials and the city to install
the bench near the park’s Salt Marsh
Nature Center off Avenue U in tribute to
their 20-year-old son — an Eagle Scout,
who suffered autism and schizophrenia.
Brian Gewirtz vanished into the park in
2015, only to be f ound dead in the Marine
Park Golf Course following a harrowing
44-day search that February.
To honor Gewirtz, along with the
park he cherished, his parents purchased
the bench shortly after the discovery
of his body, and Parks workers
installed it that summer on the promise
that the agency would maintain the memorial
for the next decade.
However, Lunz-Gewirtz was devastated
to discover the city failed to live
up to its obligation, after locals posted
images on Facebook of the desecrated
bench earlier this month.
“I was hysterically crying,” said
Lunz-Gewirtz. “It brought me right
back to his death. It was like him dying
all over again.”
But the Facebook post didn’t merely
rile the Gewirtz family, and locals including
Michael Carlin, Vincent Pietrafesa,
and Lauren Belen met Steven
Gewirtz the following day, when
they repainted the bench, trimmed the
overgrown hedges surrounding it, and
placed pumpkins as decoration around
the memorial.
“We were going to contact the Parks
Department, but before we had a chance
the neighborhood stepped up,” said
Lunz-Gewirtz. “It’s good we come from
a good community that cares about
these things.”
The Parks Department praised
the do-gooders for rehabilitating the
bench, but declined to comment regarding
why the agency didn’t fi x it.
“We always welcome community
support in keeping our green spaces
beautiful. We sincerely thank the community
members who rallied together
to repaint the bench dedicated in honor
to Brian Gewirtz,” said Anessa Hodgson,
a spokeswoman for the Parks Department.
In addition to the memorial bench
and his loving family, Gewirtz’s memory
lives on in the Brian Gewirtz Memorial
Foundation , which celebrates the
late Brooklynite’s life and helps support
causes he was passionate about in life,
including the Boy Scouts of America
and funding camping trips for children
with disabilities.
Community members donated time
and resources to refurbish a memorial
bench in Marine Park honoring a young
man who died there following a desperate
search in 2015.
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