St. Nicholas Home hosts barbecue-fundraiser

May 5, 2015 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Steven Dominguez (left) of the Wicked Monk bar-restaurant and Executive Chef Russell Titland serve pulled pork and chicken at the fundraiser. Eagle photo by Paula Katinas

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Dozens of civic leaders from Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst munched on pulled pork sandwiches, hamburgers, Buffalo wings and other tasty finger foods at a backyard barbecue Sunday afternoon, but they weren’t eating just for the fun of it. It was part of a fundraiser for the St. Nicholas Home, a nursing home in the neighborhood.

Edward Mafoud, chairman of the board of directors at the home, said the facility is trying to raise funds to renovate its building at 437 Ovington Ave.

“We would like to renovate the first floor,” Mafoud told the crowd at the barbecue fundraiser, which took place in the home’s backyard on a picture perfect day with sunny skies and warm temperatures.

Some of Bay Ridge’s most popular restaurants, bars and catering halls, including the Pearl Room, Wicked Monk, Bean Post Pub, Greenhouse Café, Giacomo’s, Cebu, Yellow Hook Grille, Bay Ridge Manor, Fort Hamilton Community Club and Mejlander & Mulgannon Deli, donated trays of food to the fundraiser.

Guests paid a donation to enter the backyard and then had their pick of any of the serving stations where the hot food was being served. The visitors sat at picnic tables that had been placed in the backyard. Several of the home’s elderly residents also came to the barbecue.

The event was sponsored by two local businesses, Super Roofer and Damascus Bakery, and by Zoe Koutsoupakis, a senior vice president of Signature Bank.

The St. Nicholas Home, which has residents as young as 60 and as old as 106, opened on Ovington Avenue in 1982. It was founded by a group of Arab-American leaders in Bay Ridge, according to Mafoud, who said they were wanted to provide a comfortable home for the community’s frail senior citizens. The home currently has 70 beds.

The community leaders who attended the fundraiser included: Fran Vella-Marrone, president of the Dyker Heights Civic Association; Mary Ann Walsh, trustee of the Kassenbrock Brothers Memorial Scholarship Fund; June Johnson, a member of Community Board 10 in Bay Ridge; Peter Clavin, a member of Bayfort Benevolent Associates; Eileen LaRuffa, a member of Community Board 11 in Bensonhurst; Angela Sarro, a member of the Friends of Historic New Utrecht; and Kevin Peter Carroll, Democratic district leader of the 64th Assembly District.

The Rev. Msgr. Jamie Gigantiello, the director of development for the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, stopped by the fundraiser and talked about the importance of the work done by the St. Nicholas Home and other senior citizen facilities.

“Our seniors built this community. It’s important that we give them a wonderful home,” he said.

***UPDATE***

Original version of article left Kevin Peter Carroll’s name off the list of guests.