WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES MARCH 15, 2018 27
BUZZ
Local offi cial honors ‘women of distinction’
BY RYAN KELLEY
RKELLEY@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
TWITTER @R_KELLEY6
A pair of successful small business
owners in Ridgewood
and Glendale were honored as
Women of Distinction by local elected
offi cials in honor of Women’s History
Month on March 8.
Antonetta “Toni” Binanti, owner of
Rudy’s Bakery & Cafe in Ridgewood,
and Michelle Cook Lopez, owner of
Cook’s Arts & Craft s Shoppe in Glendale
were among the six women recognized
by Assemblyman Mike Miller for
their achievements in their respective
communities. The annual awards ceremony
put on by Miller was dedicated
this year to the late Woodhaven civic
leader, Maria Thomson.
“Even though Maria is no longer here,
her legacy lives on,” Miller said. “The
women we are celebrating have their
own legacies that we are proud of and
I am honored to pay tribute to them.”
The other women in Miller’s district
recognized at the event on International
Women’s Day were Richmond Hill
Block Association Vice President and
One Stop Richmond Hill Community
Center Program Director Joan Bachert,
Vice President of the Woodhaven
Residents’ Block Association Giedra
Kregzdys, 102nd Precinct Captain
Courtney Nilan and President of K9
Korral Charlotte Butler.
Binanti’s family has owned Rudy’s
on Seneca Avenue for nearly 40 years,
though the Ridgewood staple has been
at the same location since 1934. Binanti’s
uncle, Ralph Difonzo, purchased
Rudy’s in the early 1980s, and Binanti
worked by his side until he passed away
in 2003 and she assumed control of the
business. Binanti has been honored in
the past for the success of Rudy’s, but
she said Miller’s award was special
because of its focus on women.
“I grew up with a lot of strong women
around me and I work with women
so I was used to that,” Binanti told QNS.
“My grandmother raised my mom to
be a strong woman, and watching my
mom, there was nothing she couldn’t
have done. It was special being recognized
as a woman owning a small
business. It was emotional for me.”
Cook’s was founded in 1970 by Cook
Lopez’s grandparents, who originally
ran it as a television repair shop. As
the need for television repairs faded,
it evolved into a craft store from Cook
Lopez’s grandmother, who used to sit
in the shop and knit. Over time, the
Myrtle Avenue shop has adapted to
the needs of the community more and
more, off ering stamps, MetroCards
and Postal Service drop-off s to customers,
for example.
Being recognized as a Woman of
Distinction was “an honor and a surprise,”
Cook Lopez said, but she and
Binanti agreed that they also have the
community to thank for supporting
them for so long.
“We’ve been here for so long, people
know they can rely on us for certain
things,” Cook Lopez told the Ridgewood
Times. “When you become a
staple in a community, the community
rallies around you.”
Photo courtesy of Assemblyman Mike Miller’s offi ce
From left to right, top row: Senator Joseph Addabbo, Jr., Michelle Cook
Lopez, Captain Courtney Nilan, Assemblyman Mike Miller. Bottom row:
Antonetta Binanti, Joan Bachert and Giedra Kregzdys.
Glendale students
compete in city fi nals
for Lego robotics
BY RYAN KELLEY
RKELLEY@RIDGEOWODTIMES.COM
TWITTER @R_KELLEY6
Students from the Sacred Heart
Catholic Academy in Glendale
brought their robotics skills all
the way to Harlem when they competed
in the city fi nals of the FIRST
Lego League (FLL) on March 11.
They call themselves the “FLLASH”
(FIRST Lego League at Sacred Heart),
and the team of seventh-graders was
one of 60 teams from around New
York City that met at City College
of New York (CCNY) to compete for
the right to move on to the national
fi nals held in Detroit, Michigan, in
April. While the FLLASH came up
short, their custom-designed Lego
Mindstorms robot still fi nished respectably
in sixth place, and coaches
Rich Mezic and Richie Huber said it
was a great experience.
“Once in a while you have to learn
to lose, and that you have to step
up your game, try harder and do
better next time,” Huber said. “But
they saw that there’s a lot of ideas
out there while going around and
looking at other teams’ projects, and
all roads lead to Rome.”
The FLLASH were last seen at
Renaissance Middle School in St.
Albans in January for the FLL qualifi
er, where their robot fi nished in
second place and they received an
award for best robot mechanical
design.
The FLL competition includes a
research project as well as the robot
games, both based on a real-world
scientifi c theme. This year’s theme
was hydrodynamics, and the students
had to research and develop a
hypothetical solution to a water-related
issue. The goal of the robot
game is to complete an automated
series of themed tasks on a table-top
playing fi eld.
The robot games are scored on a
point system, but the research projects
are presented to and awarded
by judges.
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