11 BRONX WEEKLY January 26, 2020 www.BXTimes.com
Pelham Bay Home Center nears 30 years in business
BY KYLE VUILLE
While many retail shops
endure the plight of ‘mom
and pop’ stores where big
box stores and Amazon rule
the marketplace, one store
in Pelham Bay has stood tall
and true for almost three decades
now.
John Scanlon and his
wife, Sherry, opened their
home appliance store, Pelham
Bay Home Center, on
the corner of St. Theresa and
Westchester avenues almost
30 years to the day.
“I don’t remember the exact
date, but I know one of my
daughters was born about a
year later and she’s 29 this
year,” Scanlon said.
Scanlon said he began
his career at Virginia
Westchester Plumbing, a
popular appliance retailer in
Pelham Bay that was in business
for around 70 years.
Scanlon said he worked
for the business for about 13
years before heading into his
own business venture.
“My wife Sherry and I
started this business and
it has become a real family
business,” Scanlon said.
“I’ve had all my kids working
here from time to time,
one of them, Meagan works
here now.”
Both of Scanlon’s daughters
Meagan and Tashel have
both worked at the store
throughout the years as well
as John, Jr.
However, he remembers
the hardships of those early
days.
“Sherry and I were each
working two jobs, raising
three kids, paying the mortgage
and running this business,”
Scanlon said. “We
worked hard and eventually
things turned around thanks
to all our loyal customers.”
Scanlon said he still
has customers that he fi rst
worked with at Virginia
Westchester making them
customers and friends of his
for four decades.
As a business owner,
Scanlon refl ected on competing
with the big box stores
like Home Depot and online
selling services and what it’s
actually doing to communities
like Pelham Bay.
“You used to see a family
owned shoe store, a fl orist,
a butcher shop on the
block,” Scanlon said. “Life
changes and people buy their
meats at Costco now, but we
need stores with substance
around here.”
Scanlon pointed out people
who own commercial
properties in the community
are actually hurting themselves
by buying online.
Though he does not like
everything he sees, Scanlon
is grateful to have his family
and his health and the
opportunity to give back to
his community.
“I have an employee
who has worked for me for
nine years who moved here
from Jamaica and this past
year, he bought his family
a house,” Scanlon said.
“That’s amazing to support
families through working
at the store.”
Scanlon has stayed on
the positive end of the spectrum
and wants to see his
community prosper.
He has a Mother Teresa
quote painted on his building,
John Scanlon stands outside his storefront with daughter, Meagan, and several employees at Pelham
Bay Home Center at the corner of St. Theresa Ave. and Westchester Ave. The store is coming up on its
30th anniversary. Photo by Kyle Vuille/Schneps Media
“Not all of us can do
great things.” “But we can
do small things with great
love.”
Looking towards the future,
Scanlon hopes one of
his four children takes over
the business and will keep
planting his beloved fl owers
outside the storefront
for the people of Pelham
Bay.
“Every summer I put out
fl owers, people love them,”
Scanlon said. “If more businesses
around here did
that, Pelham Bay would
look a lot nicer.”
City Year NY celebrates MLK Day by painting Bronx murals
KYLE VUILLE
Over 600 volunteers joined former
NFL player Chris Canty, former
NBA player Felipe Lopez and others
from various sponsors to paint vibrant
murals throughout the halls of
a Mott Haven school.
A group of dedicated volunteers
from NBC, Starbucks, T-Mobile, Santander
Bank and City Year NY paid
P.S. 43 in Mott Haven a visit on Martin
Luther King Jr. Day to give back
to the community.
“We painted multiple murals on
fi ve levels of the school to brighten up
and inspire the students and faculty
there,” City Year NY executive director
Laura Hamm said.
City Year NY is an educational
organization that assigns Americorp
workers to do one on one mentoring
in math and science as well as run after
school programs for underserved
communities.
“We have 200 members in 18
schools and 8 to 12 in each individual
school,” Hamm said.
According to Hamm, “Schools
partnering with City Year - as compared
with similar schools without
City Year - are two times more likely
to improve on state English assessments
and up to three times more
likely to improve profi ciency rates in
math.”
Hamm wanted to thank all the
City Year NY alumni that participated
in the event as well as the
event’s sponsors: K2 Intelligence, TMobile,
Starbucks and Enterprise
Rent-A-Car.
She sees these events as a way to
recruiting for City Year NY. Anyone
from 18 to 25 with a high school diploma
is encouraged to join.
“We are always recruiting for the
following year,” Hamm said.
Volunteers were split in designated
groups to work on individual
segments of murals. Paintings ranging
from inspirational Bronx fl avored
phrases to portraits of Barack
Obama and Dr. King Jr. himself now
have a presence in the stairwells,
along hallways and rooms in the
school.
The school itself, P.S. 53, the Jonas
Bronck School, is a K3 to 5 school
with about 500 students.
As for the impact of the murals on
P.S. 43 students, Bronx Times spoke
to Dr. Delucchi, principal of the
school and several teachers.
“There was an amazing energy
when the students walked in today,”
Dr. Delucchi said. “They were
amazed with the transformation,
it’s really triggering the children’s
imagination looking at the historical
fi gures.”
P.S 43’s speech language services
teacher, Daebriah Wint, seconded the
importance of having these historical
fi gures for students to look up and
be inspired from.
“It’s such a great way to showcase
students the work and a great way
to come into Black History Month,”
Wint said.
Wint mentioned students fi nd it
comforting to look up to these inspirational
characters in history that
refl ect how they look themselves.
One long-standing faculty member,
special education teacher for 20
years Jessica Rivera, said she loved
the mural work to the entrance of the
school and all the Bronx fl avor incorporated
into the art.
“A lot of murals exhibit Bronx
pride like the one of #4 train, the
graffi ti with ‘Boogie Down Bronx’,
and the school’s pledge which the
kids recite everyday,” Rivera said.
She highlighted one mural piece
she fi nds exceptionally special for the
students at P.S. 43 which states, “This
is where our journey begins,” that encourages
learning for years to come.
Two volunteers from the program City Year NY work on a portrait mural inside
P.S. 43 in Mott Haven on Jan. 20 to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Over 600 volunteers partcipated in the mural painting at the school.
Photo courtesy of City Year NY staff members
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