May 3, 2020 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
Month xx–xx, 2019
LOCAL
CLASSIFIEDS
PAGE 7
Cover story
Coney Island arts org launches
mask making competition
Undcocumented
immigrants fi nd
little relief
BY ROSE ADAMS
Call it a maskerpiece!
The organizers behind Coney Island’s
iconic Mermaid Parade are
bringing their love for quirkiness
and creativity to a new competition:
an online face mask design contest.
The “Put on a Funny Face Mask Contest”
celebrates unique masks while
honoring mask makers who have
provided needed protection throughout
the COVID-19 crisis, said its creator.
“We want to take advantage of
this moment of an incredible explosion
from the creative community,”
said Mark Alhadeff of Coney Island
USA.
The virtual contest asks participants
to submit photos of their handmade
creations, which will be judged
by a panel of celebrity judges according
to six categories:
• Best overall mask
• Best Coney Island-themed mask
• Best Sea creature-themed mask
• Best formal mask
• Best historical mask
• Best kids’ mask: (A mask for a
kid, or a mask that makes you a kid.
You decide!)
Spectrum News NY1, which is
sponsoring the event, will choose the
best mask that celebrates New York
City for the “One New York Mask”
category. The competition will
also feature the “People’s Choice”
award for the mask that garners the
most votes from the public, and the
“Judges’ Choice” mask chosen by the
“inebriated and corrupt” hosts of the
event.
Entries must be submitted by
May 24, and the winners will be
announced around June 1, Alhadeff
said. Coney Island USA plans to
broadcast the ceremony and award
non-cash prizes to the winners.
Contrary to the event’s name, the
masks don’t need to be funny or provide
adequate protection in order to
win, said Alhadeff, a longtime judge
for the Mermaid Parade.
“It’s all kinds of face masks, and
not just funny face masks,” he said.
“It’s really about mask aesthetic.”
The event’s kickoff comes less
than one week after Mayor Bill de
Blasio announced that the Mermaid
Parade and all other June events are
indefi nitely postponed to prevent the
spread of the virus.
Submissions for the “Put on a Funny Face Mask Competition.”
Continued on page 4 Courtesy of Esti Grifel (top) / Mark Alhadeff (bottom)
67-year-old bicyclist fatally struck in Flatbush
BY BEN VERDE
An MTA bus driver struck
and killed a 67-year-old bicyclist
in Flatbush on April 28, according
to police.
Tadeusz Czajkowski was riding
northbound on Rogers Avenue
at around 4:30 pm when he
attempted to make a right turn
onto Clarendon Road and a bus
stuck him at the intersection,
according to authorities.
A police spokesperson
claimed Czajkowski had veered
into the bus’ path and sideswiped
it just before the crash,
which threw him to the pavement..
First responders rushed
Czajkowski to nearby Kings
County Hospital, where doctors
later pronounced him dead, according
to police reports.
The bus operator stayed
at the scene, and authorities
took the 47-year-old to a hospital
for psychological evaluation
due to trauma, MTA
spokesman Tim Minton said.
No charges have been fi led,
according to cops.
“This appears to be a tragic
incident for all involved and we
are cooperating fully with the
NYPD investigation,” Minton
said in a statement. The interection where the crash took place. Google
BY JESSICA PARKS
Brooklyn’s undocumented immigrants
are facing high rates of
exposure to the novel coronavirus
and few options for fi nancial relief
as their conditions grow bleaker
amid the ongoing pandemic, according
to advocates.
“This is already a very vulnerable,
disenfranchised population,”
said Janet Perez, program director
at the Mixteca Organization Inc,
which works with immigrant families.
“With the coronavirus and
the spread, especially for folks who
have been deemed essential workers,
I think a lot of the conditions
have been exacerbated.”
The Greenwood Heights community
based organization has
been supporting undocumented
immigrants in the area for years
— but they’ve since expanded their
coverage area to service families
from as far as Connecticut and
New Jersey because of the increasingly
dire situation brought on by
the pandemic.
Undocumented immigrants
make up an estimated 6.3 percent
of Brooklyn’s population, according
to immigration research group
Partnership for a New American
Economy, and many are employed
in industries that have been
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