Bay Ridge to host baby shower benefitting domestic violence victims

68th Precinct event takes place Saturday

March 31, 2016 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Ilene Sacco, pictured with Capt. Joseph Haywood, says many domestic violence victims leave everything behind when they flee. Eagle file photo by Paula Katinas

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In an event organizers are calling the “Mother of All Baby Showers,” 100 of Bay Ridge’s local female leaders will gather at the 68th Precinct on Saturday to lend a helping hand to victims of domestic violence by donating blankets, bottles, bibs, stuffed animals and other items that new mothers might need as they start their new lives with their infants.

The baby shower will take place on April 2 at the precinct station house, 333 65th St., from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Coffee and cake will be served.

The event is sponsored by the 68th Precinct Community Council, headed by President Ilene Sacco. The sponsors also include precinct council member Kate Cucco, Sheila Doherty, Irene Hanvey and Jacklyn Tirotta.

The organizers asked 100 prominent women from Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights to donate baby gifts for the shower and to reach out to others to ask for donations. The community leaders include Josephine Beckmann, district manager of Community Board 10; Fran Vella-Marrone, president of the Dyker Heights Civic Association; Karen Tadross, executive producer of Jeff Samaha Theater Productions; Rabbi Dina Rosenberg of the Bay Ridge Jewish Center; and Andrea D’Emic, principal of St. Patrick Catholic Academy.

The shower will also serve as a salute to Women’s History Month, which takes place every March.

Sacco, a lawyer, spoke about the baby shower at a Community Board 10 meeting on March 21 and said she came up with the idea after she helped a domestic violence victim. The woman had survived a horrific incident in which she had been stabbed by her attacker and tied up with duct tape, Sacco said.

The woman and her family “got moved in the middle of the night for her safety,” Sacco told the community board.

The incident got her thinking, Sacco said. “A lot of these women get moved in the middle of the night. They leave everything behind,” she said.

Sacco said she thought hosting a gigantic baby shower and collecting gifts for mothers would be a good way of showing support.

The baby shower sponsors have also set up drop-off points where people can bring baby gifts prior to the event. The drop-off locations are Dorsa Realty, 9012 Third Ave.; Community Board 10, 8119 Fifth Ave.; and the Neighborhood Improvement Association, 6614 11th Ave.

For more information, email Kate Cucco at [email protected].

Full disclosure: This reporter is one of the 100 women taking part in the baby shower.