16 The Queens Courier • august 28, 2014 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com Bayside resident prepares for annual pigeon race BY ERIC JANKIEWICZ ejankiewicz@queenscourier.com @ericjankiewicz Xu Jun wakes up every morning at 4 a.m. and drives hundreds of miles away from his Bayside apartment with at least 70 pigeons, then lets them find their way home. He’s training his birds, known as homing pigeons, for a competition in September. “When I was young I liked to have pigeons,” Jun said in Mandarin, speaking through translator Lisa Zhang. “It’s always been an interest of mine.” Jun participates in various races across the northeast and he began the hobby three years ago. The World Center Memorial Race, the one Jun is currently preparing for, is hosted by the Bronx Homing Pigeon Club and takes place in late September. Each of Jun’s 101 pigeons has an individual number tag so that the race organizers can make sure nobody cheats. The organizers of the race will take Jun’s birds, along with hundreds of other contestants’ birds, to an undisclosed area where they are released. Contestants are judged based on how fast their flock comes home, according to Jun. Jun’s birds live in a wooden nest, known as a loft, in a College Point bus repair shop. The loft serves as their home and final destination in races. Jun works for the shop and during the lulls in his work schedule he cleans the loft and feeds the birds. Homing pigeons have two racing seasons. The first is in late September when the birds are less than a year old. The second season is in the spring and the birds are typically older by this point in their racing careers. With the first race season approaching, Jun has been training his pigeons by taking them further and further out in New Jersey every week and then releasing them in the wild, where they will usually take several hours to fly back home. “I just like pigeons. It’s a very simple thing for me and I enjoy it,” Jun said. That day he was particularly pleased with his birds’ athletic performance; he released 73 and all of them returned, an outcome that doesn’t always happen. “There’s kind of a neat tradition to pigeon homing,” said Deone Roberts, who works for the American Racing Pigeon Union, an organization that’s affiliated with hundreds of pigeon clubs THE COURIER/Photo by Eric Jankiewicz across the country. “The bird’s simply enjoying flying and going home,” she said. “The pigeon wants to go home and be with his mate and their offspring. It makes good fun.” Using pigeons for racing has been around in America since the late 1800s, according to Roberts’ organization. The birds, a common sight in New York City, were also used during WWII to transmit messages across enemy lines. Astoria consignment shop opens to bring community high-quality, affordable items BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO aaltamirano@queenscourier.com @aaltamirano28 A new Astoria shop is looking to bring the community high-quality items at low prices. Sofia’s Consignment Shop, located at 32-20 34th Ave., opened its doors two months ago and offers customers clothing, jewelry and children’s, household, collector and designer items — and much more. At the shop, people can come in with their items in good or almost new condition and sign a contract with the shop. They will then have the option of either receiving 60 percent in credit for the items they put down or getting 40 percent cash back on what the item is sold for. Rabea Oummih, owner of the store, said she chooses the best items and lists them at affordable prices. “I’m a mother of five and I know it’s not easy having to spend good amounts of money to buy things,” said Oummih. “Our prices are always much less. We are trying to help the community around here in order for them to be able to buy what they need but at very good rates at the same time.” Oummih, who immigrated to the United States from Morocco when she was 10 years old and grew up in Astoria, has also been the owner of Amana Insurance Brokerage on 34th Street for the past two years. She opened Sofia’s, named after her niece, right next door in a spot she initially wanted to use to expand her insurance business. “It’s the best thing — I can keep, balance and manage both,” said Oummih, who has had a career in insurance for 25 years. “It’s a little bit difficult because insurance has nothing to do with this but it works.” Although Oummih now lives in Long Island, most of her family continues to live in Astoria and she said she hopes the shop will become a store for the community. She said she invites people to come in, sell their items and shop. The shop also sells furniture and items from Morocco, as well as art pieces, some done by Oummih’s 21-year-old daughter who also designed the store’s logo. Furniture items are kept in a warehouse and customers can take a look at the options from a book of photographs at the shop. “My goal is to help my community, help the people around here and have a family-oriented business. Where people don’t just come in because they have to buy something, but also for a ‘Hello, how are you.’ I like that,” Oummih said. “I am going to start to feel like I belong, this is what I was supposed to do and this is the right way to do it.” For more information, call 718-775- 8455. THE COURIER/ Photo by Angy Altamirano
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