24 AUGUST 2, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES 110TH ANNIVERSARY WWW.QNS.COM
GREAT PEOPLE
Serving the children of Ridgewood
and beyond for nearly 40 years
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
Bob Monahan, who has been with the
Greater Ridgewood Youth Council
for nearly four decades, has seen
the organization fl ourish fi rsthand.
A not-for-profi t, the organization
that focuses on a number of community
initiatives, including education,
counseling, truancy prevention, job
preparation and employment opportunities.
It was established in 1980.
“We started with three employees
on Fresh Pond Road back in 1981,” said
Monahan, who has served as president
for 18 years. “To be where we are today
is just an immense pleasure. I love
coming to work every day.”
The organization serves 3,200 kids
a day, youth and families, in about 38
to 40 schools scattered throughout
Queens, he said. In the summertime,
the group has 1400 summer youth
employment workers, mostly from
Queens, who are placed at jobs
throughout the borough, at places like
local camps, Maspeth Town Hall, the
YMCA and local libraries and hospitals.
“We have a youth movement here
in the neighborhood,” Monahan said.
“That’s a wonderful thing. It’s an amazing
thing to watch our staff interact.
We have close to 70 full time employees
that are totally passionate about what
they do. So the future is very bright.”
Other organization programs include
universal pre-K, a year round
Young Adult Internship Program
(YAIP), and the Summer Youth Employment
Program (SYEP) which provides
over 1,600 young adults with both
school year and summertime jobs. Efforts
are scattered throughout Queens,
though concentrated mostly in Ridgewood,
Middle Village and Maspeth,
“where we got our start,” said Monahan.
Monahan, who has lived in Glendale
for about 44 years, is also involved
with the Glendale Kiwanis and now
the Ridgewood Kiwanis. Serving his
community is “very gratifying.”
“The organization has a 38-year history
with the Ridgewood Times Newsweekly,”
he said. “We participated in
your 100th anniversary and now we’re
celebrating the 110th. You have been
incredibly supportive. It’s nice to see
good things in the paper. That’s what
you normally see with the Greater
Ridgewood Youth Council.”
Longtime Assemblywoman refl ects on life spent in Ridgewood
BY RYAN KELLEY
While many local residents
aren’t old enough to have
seen a day without Assemblywoman
Catherine Nolan in offi ce,
Nolan has hardly seen a day without
Ridgewood in her life.
Nolan, 60, has called Ridgewood
home since her parents moved to the
neighborhood when she was nine
months old, she said. First the family
lived on Stockholm Street, then Harmon
Street and now Grove Street, and
the 34-year Assembly incumbent has
no intention of ever leaving, she said.
“It was seen as an aff ordable and attractive
neighborhood then, and that’s
been the goal ever since,” Nolan said.
“This was the kind of neighborhood
that was happy to rent to my mother
and father. We’ve had a great family
life here.”
Throughout her political career,
Nolan has been proud to be part of
the long tradition of female leadership
in the area — including
Maureen Walthers at the Ridgewood
Times — and of the services she has
brought to her district, she said. The
Assemblywoman was instrumental
in keeping Wyckoff Heights Medical
Center open, improving the M train
stations in Ridgewood, supporting
the 104th Precinct and the Ridgewood
Library, and opening the new Greater
Ridgewood Youth Council community
center.
Yet, Nolan takes even more pride
in the fact that she has been able to
achieve these things alongside other
Ridgewood patriarchs.
“We have a long tradition of getting
people together and having a united
eff ort,” Nolan said. “I would say everything
I’ve done has been a collaboration
and I’d like to think I’ve continued
that with Assemblyman Miller. I’m
proud to feel that I’ve helped with a
coalition.”
Ridgewood could not have maintained
that civic spirit without its
namesake newspaper, Nolan said.
Through letters to the editor, obituaries,
real estate, shopping and
local news, the Ridgewood Times was
instrumental in keeping the neighborhood’s
identity while nearby Bushwick
was ravaged with crime in the 1970s,
Nolan said.
“When they write the history of
Ridgewood, the Times would be the
key reason,” Nolan said.
Even as a politician, Nolan said she
admired the Times’ commitment to
never endorse a political candidate
and “just report the facts.” She also
attributes the Times as one of the reasons
the Ridgewood Democratic Club
has remained in tact nearly as long as
the paper itself.
Nolan, who has recently taken up
gardening at her Grove Street home,
said that she will happily continue to
serve, live and love Ridgewood for
many years to come.
Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan (second from left) and City Councilman
Antonio Reynoso (second from right) with staff members and constituents
at a 2014 appearance in Ridgewood.