42 DECEMBER 1 - DECEMBER 7, 2017 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP
Third Annual Willie McCabe Memorial Run
raises funds, awareness for homeless vets
BY JAIME DEJESUS
JDEJESUS@BROOKLYNREPORTER.COM
Raising awareness and funds
for military veterans through
a growing tradition.
The Third Annual Willie McCabe
Memorial Run, held on Saturday, November
18 at Owl’s Head Park, once
again featured local runners who wanted
to run to benefit homeless veterans.
The run was founded by Liam
McCabe in honor of father Willie, a
veteran, who died homeless in Bay
Ridge over 10 years ago.
“The motivation was to bring awareness
to homeless veterans,” McCabe
said. “It’s a sad state when our city and
our country have people that serve it
and are willing to give up everything
and we can’t come together to figure
out a solution to this. We owe it to our
veterans. They were willing to sacrifice
everything for us and in some
cases, they have fallen on hard times,
have post traumatic stress disorder.
I think that’s a big part of it and it’s a
big reason why it’s difficult for a lot of
them to ask for help.”
This year’s event was colder than
past years, but still a success.
“It was wonderful and a nice turnout,”
McCabe said. "It was a bit chillier
compared to last year but it was good.”
He said his work with veterans
motivates him to keep the tradition
going strong. “Working for two
congressmen, I've worked with a lot
of veterans,” McCabe explained. “We
work with the VA and in depth with
Fort Hamilton Army Base. I have a lot
of veterans in my family so I know
veterans pretty well. Some of my best
friends served in Iraq. I know that
they’re very strong-willed, patriotic
people so it’s hard for them to admit
they may need some help or assistance.
They’re used to taking initiative.”
He also discussed the sacrifices and
hardships his father faced.
“My dad was living on the train
tracks because he was going to make
his own way,” McCabe said. “As I spend
more time in public service and civics,
I’ve learned more about the programs
that are available and I wish my dad
had known about them while he
was suffering. I wish it was a little
more okay to talk about. I was a little
ashamed and my father was too about
him being homeless. We just want to
bring awareness to it and take away
the stigma.”
BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/Photos by Arthur de Gaeta
Every year, the run raises money
for a different organization. This
year, it raised money for Charities for
Charities. “The organization is run
by Jane Da Costa and she is a veteran
herself who deals with homeless veterans
and she does a lot of fieldwork
to help them at the street level with a
bunch of other veterans,” McCabe said.
“That inspired me to
want to work with her
this year. We want to
spread the word and
pick an organization
that is going to reach
veterans.”
According to McCabe, the run
consisted of a loop and a half through
Owl’s Head Park followed by a loop on
the bike path to the first overpass and
ended on top of Lookout Hill.
The continued support meant a lot
to him.
“It means so much that the community
rallies to this
cause and that
it grows every
year,” McCabe
said. “It’s starting
to become its
own thing and
that means a lot
because people
are beginning to
understand more
about the issue
and be comfortable
contributing to this
race and the organizations that benefit
from it. It means a lot to me personally.”
P.S. 160 students take part in STACK UP!
BROOKLYN
EDUCATION
Stacking and unstacking plastic
cups is not only an energizing
and fun activity, but it is also a
world-record-setting pursuit. On November
9, students at P.S. 160 joined
thousands of participants in STACK
UP!, the Guinness World Records
sport stacking event.
During the course of Guinness
World Records Day, sport stackers
from around the world took part in
up stacking and down stacking cup
pyramids following set patterns and
combined it all with fitness activities.
Last year, 622,809 stackers participated
to break the previous year’s
STACK UP! record of 618,394. Sport
stacking improves reaction time,
hand-eye coordination, concentration
and focus.
Popular in schools and youth organizations
worldwide, it is easy to
learn but very challenging to master.
The World Sport Stacking Association
(WSSA) is the governing body
for sport stacking and promotes
stack meets, leagues and tournaments.
Speed Stacks is the official
equipment supplier to the WSSA.
To participate in the record-setting
STACK UP!, schools and organizations
must register 25 or more
stackers with the WSSA. Once a
group completes the 30 minutes of
stacking for each participant during
the day, the organizer sends in an
online verification of numbers to the
WSSA, who will send the total count
to Guinness.
* * *
Bishop Kearney High School’s
Science Club, moderated by Roseann
Daniello, recently submitted five
experiments for this year’s NASA
Expulsion Challenge.
Using Fab Lab software, the students
prepared a proposal and a diagram
to submit to NASA for review.
The challenge required students to
design and build objects that sink in
water in normal gravity but will be
expelled as far as possible out of the
water during free fall in NASA’s 2.2
Second Drop Tower.
If selected by NASA for testing,
the students will build their objects
in the Fab Lab using the laser cutter
and the 3-D printer. The completed
objects are then sent to NASA for
testing, and after student review and
analysis of the testing results, NASA
selects challenge winners.
This project inspires students to
pursue STEM careers by participating
in research related to space
station science and learning about
experiment design and construction.
BY JULIETTE PICCINI TUGANDER
Photo courtesy of P.S. 160
P.S. 160 students had fun displaying their cup-stacking skills.
The runners.
Christina Cahill, Jessica
De Stefano and Julia
Gabriellini