15 BRONX WEEKLY December 22, 2019 www.BXTimes.com
Holiday gift wrapping brings cheer to Throggs Neck
BY KYLE VUILLE
The spirit of the holidays are
alive in Throggs Neck this year after
this weekend’s community gift
wrapping drive.
A community gift wrapping
drive took place at the Throggs
Neck Community Church on Friday,
December 13 with many from
the nieghborhood pitching in to do
their part.
Community Board 10 member
Angela Torres said the event only
started last year when the crazy
idea to do a toy drive popped into
her head.
She started the project by working
with a local shelter, Crystal’s
Place. From there word spread
from friend to friend, then to family
and members of her church.
What started out as a small effort
to spread some holiday cheer
has already grown into an awesome
event, Torres said.
She said in the beginning it was
just herself, her husband (begrudgingly),
her two kids and six other
people who spent an evening together
wrapping gifts in her own
home.
Surprisingly, the toy drive received
enough toys to not only supply
the one shelter, but two others
as well. A shelter in Westchester
Square and another in Hunts
Point.
This year, however, was a different
story, with over 100 volunteers
attending the holiday drive at 2730
Bruckner Boulevard.
Accent Care of NY and Alliance
Health were major toy contributors,
while local businesses like
Crosstown Diner and Paisano Pizzeria
fed the volunteers.
Clinical director Mike Arenella
of Accent Care of NY and Alliance
Health said between their four offi
ces, around 300 gifts were collected
this year and will be distributed
among four different shelters
throughout the Bronx.
“We brought the whole community
together,” Arenella said. “We
really worked together to make
this a successful event.”
Other affi liates involved in
the drive included School Board
District 8, P.S. 304, P.S. 382 and
Westchester United Methodist
Women.
Most organizations provided
wrapping paper, tape, and scissors
to make the holiday wrapping complete.
CB 10, School District 8, P.S. 304,
P.S. 382 and Throggs Neck Community
Church are drop off points
with the toys being distributed on
Saturday, December 21.
“Everyone’s giving a little piece.
That’s so awesome,” Torres said.
NYC City Council member Mark Gjonaj stands with several attendees at the Throggs Neck community holiday wrapping
party at the Throggs Neck Community Church on Friday December 13. The community donated over 300 gifts that will be
distributed December 21 to four different shelters in the Bronx. Photo courtesy of Angela Torres
Bronx author’s collection acquired by University of Pennsylvania
BY JASON COHEN
An internationally recognized
children’s book
author and illustrator, poet
and humanitarian, Bronx
native Ashley Bryan, recently
had a collection of
his work acquired by the
University of Pennsylvania
Libraries.
On Thursday, December
5, Bryan’s archive came
to the Kislak Center for
Special Collections, Rare
Books and Manuscripts at
the Penn Libraries through
the Ashley Bryan Center,
which has represented and
preserved his legacy since
2013. Bryan also has art
displayed in the Mott Haven
Library.
The archive includes
original drawings and
manuscripts for Bryan’s
many book projects, along
with correspondence dating
from his days as a student
at The Cooper Union
for the Advancement of Science
and Art in the early
1940s and fan mail from admirers
around the globe.
Nick Clark, the founding
director of the Ashley
Bryan Center, in Maine,
has known Bryan for several
years and feels this is
a tremendous opportunity
for people to learn about
Bryant.
“He’s extraordinary.
He’s the type of person that
literally when he comes
into a room he lights it up,”
Clark said. “As an artist of
color he was among the pioneers
to bring characters
of color into books for children.”
Bryan, 96, was raised
in the Bronx. At 17, he entered
the tuition-free Cooper
Union School of Art and
Engineering, having been
denied entry elsewhere because
of his race.
Drafted out of art
school into the segregated
U.S. Army at 19, Bryan
preserved his humanity
throughout World War II by
drawing, stowing supplies
in his gas mask when necessary.
After the war, he completed
his Cooper Union
degree, studied philosophy
and literature at Columbia
University on the GI Bill,
and then went to Europe
on a Fulbright scholarship,
seeking to understand why
humans choose war.
Clark noted that while
Bryan served overseas, his
fellow soldiers kept him
away from weapons if they
could.
“He didn’t let the war
get in the way of his making
art,” Clark said. “The
safest way for them was for
Ashley to be as far away
from machinery as possible.
”B
ryan has published
more than 50 books, including
his recent one, “Infi -
nite Hope.” This memoir,
recounts his experiences
as an African American
drafted into the segregated
U.S. Armed Forces in 1943.
Bryan also spent 14 years
teaching at Dartmouth College
in New Hampshire.
“He’s a very gifted
teacher,” Clark said. “I
think he really prefers
working with younger children.”
Bryan has made his
home on Little Cranberry
Island, just off the coast of
Bronx native Ashley Bryan at UPenn, where his artowrk and writing was just acquired by the school.
Photo Courtesy Penn Development and Alumni Relations
Maine, for the last 50 years.
During the past three
decades he has written and
illustrated more than 20
children’s books celebrating
his African American
heritage.
Lynn Farrignton, the senior
curator of special collections
at the Kislak Center,
has met Bryan many
times and though his work
would be a great addition to
the facility.
“He’s an amazing individual,”
she said. “I’ve been
blown away every time I’ve
met him.”
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