24 times • JUNE 2, 2016 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com Crystal Waters is headlining the 24th annual Queens Pride Parade on June 5 By Angela Matua amatua@ridgewoodtimes.com @AngelaMatua Crystal Waters, a musician best known for her ’90s dance hits “Gypsy Woman” and “100% Pure Love,” will be headlining the Queens Pride Parade on Sunday, June 5, in Jackson Heights. Waters’ hit “100% Pure Love” debuted at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and was one of the longest charting songs in history when it spent a total of 45 weeks on the charts. She has participated in several AIDS benefit concerts and performed at pride festivals all across the country. “We are excited to have Crystal Waters share her talents with us at Queens Pride,” said Andrew Ronan, co-chair of Queens Pride. The theme of the parade, which starts at noon, will be “Pride Unites Us!/El Orgullo Nos Une” and grand marshals include Councilman Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, the AIDS Center of Queens County, and Jessica Stern, executive director of Outright Action International. The parade will begin at 89th Street and 37th Avenue and end at 75th Street, where it disperses into a festival. Singers, comedians, drag acts and dance groups will take the stage at the Multicultural Festival component of the event held at 37th Road from 73rd to 77th streets. The festival begins at 11 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m. Food vendors and business, community and social groups will also have a presence at the festival. The parade was founded in 1993 by Councilman Daniel Dromm in response to School District 24 President Mary Cummins’ refusal to adopt Board of Education curriculum that encourages students to be accepting of gay people. In 1992, Dromm came out as an openly gay public school teacher. He also served as a former co-chair of Queens Pride. “The Queens LGBT Pride Parade continues to spread the empowering message that we in the LGBT community are your family, friends and neighbors,” Dromm said. “For 24 years, this parade has opened the hearts and minds of Queens residents and has made the historic gains the LGBT has seen over the past several years possible.” Musician Crystal Waters will headline the Queens Pride Parade on June 5. The Queens LGBT Pride Parade continues to spread the empowering message that we in the LGBT community are your family, friends and neighbors,” --Daniel Dromm Councilman By Angela Matua amatua@ridgewoodtimes.com @AngelaMatua Three years after Hurricane Sandy decimated the Rockaway Beach boardwalk, the area has seen a revitalization, and outdoor trip companies are noticing. NYC Beach Bums and OvRride, two companies specializing in transporting people to outdoor destinations, are offering Queens and Brooklyn residents opportunities to explore the beach, local shops and dining in the area. NYC Beach Bums curates outdoor group trips to beaches, mountains for camping and skiing and rivers for tubing and rafting. They currently provide trips to Rockaway Beach for groups of up to 12 people. The vans leave from Long Island City, Sunnyside, Astoria, Greenpoint and Williamsburg. In addition to transporting groups, the company also provides coolers, ice, wireless Bluetooth speakers and storage for surfboards with every trip. The Sunnysidebased company was started by Jacob Markovich and trips cost $250 for a group of 12. OvRride was started by Jamie Kiley, a New Jersey native who grew up surfing and skiing. He started transporting friends to ski spots in 2010 and the company grew to include trips to Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, New Jersey and parts of South America and Japan. After Hurricane Sandy hit, Kiley and friends in the surfing and snowboarding community decided to volunteer their time transporting supplies and people to the area. “One of our co-organizers said regardless of the efforts that the government was putting in the area, it just wasn’t enough,” Kiley said. In the summer of 2014, OvRide began offering trips to Rockaway Beach as a way to introduce people to the area. Though they didn’t make a profit, Jamie said the trips were a way to support local businesses that were affected by the storm. “It was a lot of fun and certainly it was a charity effort,” Kiley said. “We never really turned a coin on it. That also started to change people’s perceptions of how accessible the Rockaways were.” Now, OvRride buses about 100 to 150 people each weekend to the beach from Bushwick, Williamsburg and the East Village, charging each customer $24.95 per round trip. The company partners with a handful of local businesses to give riders discounts on food, Narragansett beer, surf schools and more. They’ve also teamed up with the organizers behind Rockaway Beach Bus, a Bushwick-based company, to introduce more people to the Rockaway Beach area. Some of OvRride’s partners include Rippers, Breezy’s BBQ, City Sticks, Off Season Rockaway, Sayra’s Wine Bar, Station RBNY, Riis Park Beach Bazaar, Zingara Vintage, De La Mer 1981 and Playland Motel. Kiley said that during the trips, he and his crew educate riders about the history of the area and the positive improvements Rockaway Beach is experiencing. “One of the things that I try to continue, as well as the rest of our crew is just to remind people that things are on the other side, there’s still a lot going on,” Kiley said. “A lot of these businesses are coming back.” Outdoor trip companies are making it easier to get to Rockaway Beach Photo courtesy of Facebook/Crystal Waters Photo courtesy of NYC Beach Bus Companies are making it easier for people to explore the Rockaways.
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