FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM OCTOBER 11, 2018 • BUZZ • THE QUEENS COURIER 81
Celebrating a young
woman’s milestone
helped me create the Women’s
Organization for Retarded
Children (WORC); we
marched, picketed and protested
for a restoration of funds to
Willowbrook, where 5,400 helpless
people lived.
But our voices were as if
we were talking to the clouds
left unheard, and the government
wasn’t listening. Finally,
Geraldo’s passionate, relentless
coverage of the abuse going
on there was heard and seen
through his voice — and no one
could ignore it any more.
He came back week after week,
many times interviewing me
and following me as I took Lara
home.
He also followed her father
Murray, who with the Parents
Association filed, and ultimately
won, a class action lawsuit that
resulted in closing Willowbrook
down.
Today, that campus
was transformed into
the College of Staten
Island — and the people
who once lived at
Willowbrook are living
in dignity in the community
in group homes
Geraldo and Erica with Sol holding the Torah as she begins
her bat mitzvah service
The entrance to the Riveras’ home
home
celebrated their move from New York
City to Cleveland
and going to therapeutic day
programs.
Geraldo has supported my
group, now renamed Life’s
WORC, over four decades. So for
mwt
me, it
was particularly
sweet to be
with him joyously celebrated
his daughter’s right
of passage into the
Jewish faith.
On Saturday, the sabbath
Sol’s official
portrait
-
ly
o be
m as he
y celebrated
day, the sun shone
s
wj
hoJ
b
brightly through the
stunning stained glass
windows of the majestic
sanctuary. Sol greeted
the 350 people who
filled every comfortable
armchair. She
glowed as did her exultant
parents as she led
us through the prayers
and read her portion of
the Torah, as is the tradition of a
bat or bar mitzvah.
In lieu of gifts, Sol had thoughtfully
and generously asked us to
support the Therapeutic Nursery
at Kaplen JCC on the Palisades
in Tenafly, New Jersey. What a
wonderful way to make her bat
mitzvah more meaningful, as the
JCC helped her as an infant.
After the service we were treated
to a lunch/kiddish at the synagogue,
friends and met new ones.
We had a few hours before
the celebration and party at the
Riveras’ new home in Shaker
Heights, Ohio, about 20 minutes
from the Hyatt hotel in a shopping
Legacy Village.
As we drove up the long driveway,
majestic trees lit up in pink lights.
sign th
smile
up
to
s
T
feeli
vice c
the party
was also a virtual reality sports
activity tent, a fun photo booth
and a big party room for the kids.
Since my grandson’s bar mitzvah
Broadway shows, I appreciated
how Sol’s passion for Broadway
was used as a theme throughout
the party rooms.
The highlight of the bat mitzvah
We all danced and laughed as
five strong men lifted Geraldo,
then Erica, then Sol and her
grandmother as they screeched
while being sprung into the air.
It made me so happy to see the
joy on their faces. It was a landmark
was so delighted to be there to
share it.
Sol loves going to Broadway from her Manhattan days, now transplanted to
Cleveland
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It was a wondrous weekend
in Cleveland, Ohio, as I
attended the bat mitzvah of
dear friends Geraldo and Erica
Rivera’s daughter, Sol.
When our plane landed Friday
night, we went straight to the
majestic Capital Grille, which
had closed for our private party
to begin celebrating Sol’s “coming
of age.”
We slipped into our seats just
as Geraldo was greeting the 150
guests filling the booths and long
tables of the restaurant. It was
Shabbat, and at each table were
sabbath candles and a traditional
challah bread. After prayers,
we filed into rooms set up with
a buffet of steak, seafood, salad
and pasta.
What fun to see people from
the “Willowbrook Days,” a time
in the 1970s when Geraldo was
a rookie reporter for WABC-TV.
He had broken the story of the
abuse and neglect suffered by
thousands of the people living at
the Willowbrook State School on
Staten Island.
My daughter Lara was in the
Baby Rehabilitation Center.
Budget cuts came soon after
her arrival. My Bayside friends
where I saw some old
and dining complex called
the fun began with all the
The doorway had a welcome
that made me
smile as I walked
up the brick steps
to the doorway.
The Riveras
home was
transformed
into a stunning
party
space.
The joyous
feeling at the service
continued into
the party, with a rocking
DJ and balloons
filling the pool. There
is next March, and he loves
was dancing the hora, a celebratory
dance done in a circle.
event in their lives and I
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