16 DECEMBER 9, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Queens Chamber honors business ‘heroes’
BY BILL PARRY
BPARRY@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
As he was driving to work in
Long Island City in late March
2020, Charles Boyce grew tired
of hearing about the ventilator crisis
that was plaguing New York City days
during the early days of the COVID-19
pandemic.
The president of Boyce Technologies
Inc. made up his mind to tackle the ventilator
crisis head-on and convened a
meeting with several engineers at his
company’s Pearson Place headquarters.
Within 24 hours, Boyce and his team
successfully repurposed components
and soft ware from Boyce Technologies’
line of mass transit emergency
communications equipment and constructed
a working ventilator. A short
time later, Boyce received a call from a
friend who asked him to join a group of
manufacturers that were developing
emergency ventilators.
“In the end, we abandoned our internal
design, although we were able
to leverage much of the research that
we’d already done,” Boyce said. “It
wasn’t about commercialization or
who got credit for a ventilator at that
point; it was about saving lives.”
On Dec. 1, Boyce was honored along
with 10 other business leaders at Terrace
on the Park as the Queens Chamber
of Commerce hosted their annual
Business Heroes of the Year Awards
Dinner. This year, the event paid
special tribute to the business leaders
“who went above and beyond to support
small businesses and the Queens community”
during the pandemic.
The honorees included Nupur
Arora of Queens Curry Kitchen, who
began a food delivery service donating
thousands of Indian meals to
seniors, COVID-19 patients and other
patients undergoing intense medical
procedures.
Declan Morris of Austin Public
& Stacked Sandwich Shop, who was
forced to close one of his restaurants
when the pandemic hit but quickly
pivoted to feed frontline workers
and families in need, was among the
honorees.
So too was Patrick Oropeza of Bolivian
Llama Party, whose crew worked
tirelessly to provide food donations
to those in need and supported local
charities in the face of his restaurant’s
fi nancial challenges. Also honored was
Mark Boccia of Bourbon Street, who in
March 2020 launched the “Food for the
Fearless” campaign, which raised more
than $100,000 to donate 10,000 meals to
frontline hospital workers.
Frank Russo of Russo’s on the Bay
was recognized for donating graband
go lunches to New Yorkers in need
throughout the pandemic and has
raised millions of dollars to fund education
and research of life-threatening
diseases.
Other honorees included Rachel
Keller of Aigner Chocolates, who at the
height of the pandemic donated Easter
chocolates to seniors in isolation and a
2-foot-tall chocolate bunny to frontline
workers at Elmhurst Hospital. Melva
Miller of the Association for a Better
New York was recognized for leading
the organization’s outreach eff orts for
the 2020 census, working to ensure
a fair and accurate count of all New
Yorkers particularly those living in
historically underserved communities.
Also honored was NYC Department
of Small Business Services Commissioner
Jonnel Doris, who took the helm
at SBS two months into the pandemic,
and has “tirelessly advocated for entrepreneurs
and small business owners
since stepping into the role.”
Read more on QNS.com.
Queens Chamber of Commerce hosted its annual Business Heroes of the
Year awards ceremony at Terrace on the Park.
Courtesy of Queens Chamber of Commerce
ALL OF US HERE AT HARRY'S
WISH A SAFE - HEALTHY
MERRY CHRISTMAS
AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL
SHOP LOCAL
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82-03 Eliot Avenue · Middle Village, NY 11379
718-458-5917
Hours:
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Sun. 9:00 am to 3:00 pm
2022 NOMINEE
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