It started with a little girl’s question and has grown year after year into a family/community effort that has brought smiles to thousands of ill children at Christmas.

This year, Anna O’Connor and Friends Annual Ronald McDonald House Toy Drive are going full steam ahead, celebrating their ninth year of spreading joy.

Her mother, Debbie Spanburgh O’Connor explained how it all started. “In 2010 my daughter was diagnosed with leukemia,” she said.

Although Anna would later go into remission

It is that time of year again where we will all be subjected to the crazy elf pictures when many of our social media friends try to outdo one another with their elaborate poses and shenanigans. Those of you with children that have been experiencing this for a few years, how do you keep it original?

For those of you like me who either have older children or no children at all, the Elf on the Shelf is a book that was published in 2005 by the genius mother-daughter team of Carol Aebersold and

BHYC Holiday Boutique

On Thursday, December 2, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., head to the Belle Harbor Yacht Club to shop from over 40 vendors, plus gifts raffles and entertainment. For inquires, email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

West End Temple Hanukkah Celebration

On Friday, December 3, West End Temple (147-02 Newport Ave) is holding a family service and latke dinner.  Bring a vegetarian side dish to share. Vaccination required and masks when not eating. RSVP by December 2 by calling

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Waturi Johnson, 51, has been indicted on murder charges and other crimes for allegedly shooting a young man in front of a car service on October 4, 2021, in Far Rockaway.

Johnson, of Beach 30th Street, was arraigned before Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder on an indictment charging him with murder in the second degree and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree. Justice Holder ordered the defendant to

With Thanksgiving in the rearview mirror, we’re heading full speed into the holiday season and its proliferation of scams. Be cautious when sharing information online and take precautions to avoid holiday frauds.

Fake charities reach out this time of year to take advantage of goodwill (and the desire for year-end tax deductions). Confirm the legitimacy of any charity before donating. Don’t donate through a link or provide information to a caller. Instead, support charities through their

Glucose, a simple sugar, is the fuel that powers most mammals, humans included. All foods that we consume are broken down in the digestive tract by digestive enzymes to simple nutrients including glucose. At approximately eight to 12 hours after the last food intake, assuming there is no oral intake after that, the body has used all the available glucose from that meal, so it must find glucose from another source. The body then begins a process in the liver called gluconeogenesis, which breaks

*****

Happy Thanksgiving!

*****

Happy Hannukah!  – Already? Yes, the Festival of Lights, begins Sunday, November 28. November 28 is the earliest start to the eight day holiday. In 2035, the first day of Hannukah will be on Christmas, December 25.

*****

The de Blasio administration has succeeded in making driving a frustrating and maddening experience. The latest ridiculousness is the installation of speed bumps on Shore Front Parkway (parkway, ha ha!). The speed limit is 25 on Shore Front

*****

Next week is Thanksgiving so we won’t be delivering the hard copy of the paper until Friday, November 26. We will be emailing the paper, as usual, on Thursday. If you can’t bear to wait to read The Rockaway Times, now would be a good time to sign up for the email version, which is free, of course. Send us an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  and we’ll add you to the list.

*****

Stand by your pan. That’s not a typo (as in, stand by your man). That’s the message from the Consumer Product

*****

Happy Veteran’s Day. Thank you for your service and sacrifices. (It cannot be overstated how important veterans are to this country and our way of life).

*****

Tomorrow, November 12 is the 20th anniversary of the crash of Flight 587 in Belle Harbor. It was a terrible and terrifying event that occurred as the community was dealing with the aftermath of 9/11. Two hundred and sixty people aboard the flight were killed and five Rockaway residents were killed in their homes. We hope the

*****

Congratulations to Joann Ariola and Eric Adams. Ariola won the 32nd District City Council race in decisive fashion as did Adams in the mayoral race. The City Council race was expected to be a squeaker, but Ariola won big, taking 68% of the vote to Singh’s 31%. Social media can be noisy. It’s instructive to recall what Adams said when he won the primary: he said he cared about social security not social media. (Which reminds us, both winning candidates advertised big in The Rockaway

*****

Boo. Happy Halloween!

*****

The coast is clear for another 91 years, right? Nine years ago, tomorrow (October 29), they called it a 100-year storm after Sandy rolled in and wreaked destruction and caused hundreds of deaths along the east coast.  Just a couple months back, Hurricane Ida, which largely spared Rockaway, was the most recent reminder that such storms aren’t 100-year events anymore.

*****

Now is a good time to check batteries and discuss evacuation plans with family. And

*****

Volunteers Needed. The Friends of Tribute Park have received 500 daffodil bulbs from the Daffodil Project. These are to be planted Saturday October 30 at 10 a.m. Please bring gloves and a trowel. Questions? Send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

*****

Well, Curtis Sliwa, the mayoral candidate, running on the republican side, ditched the Tuesday evening Belle Harbor Property Owners Association (BHPOA) meeting at PS 114 after committing to it weeks ago. Seems he had to prep for last

Dear Editor:

I am Teagan O’Rourke, the goalie for the SFDS 5th grade girls soccer team. I am writing you to talk about the recent article with the title 5th Grade SFDS Champions! The first thing I want to say is thank you for putting my team’s picture in The Times. But there is one thing that I wanted to bring to your attention. I do not completely understand why the boys’ season was mentioned, but not the girls. The boys team got a shout out for the win and a shutout game, but there was no

Dear Editor:

I commend Susan Lavin for all she does for our community. She worked quietly for the libraries, even through the early stages of this pandemic, tirelessly for the elders' needs, and furthering educational options throughout Queens and Brooklyn.

Susan is the driving force behind the Holiday Boutique, again emerging on very short notice—December 2 at the Yacht Club. Here, she gives her all for the vendors and the public at this FREE event. It's a blast and it kicks off the holiday

 Dear Editor:

I propose that our local elected officials submit to the NYC city council, a bill to rename a main Rockaway thoroughfare after our most dedicated Rockaway advocate, Lew Simon. Thank You.

John Patrylo

 Dear Editor:

My Father, Emil R. Lucev, Sr. (Rockaway's Historian) and Lew Simon were long time buddies. They shared a lot of the same political views and much different ones. They both had one common passion, the LOVE for the entire Rockaway Peninsula. When my father passed away, Lew did not hesitate to write up a nice memorial for my Dad. RIP Lew and my condolences to his family.

Katie Lucev-Terino

 Dear Editor:

Our community has suffered through enough. We have been neglected by our city and state Governments for far too long. Something as simple as available and reliable transportation is not available for our community. Our community is already a ‘transportation desert’ and it will get worse, unless we act. According to Census ACS data 52% of Queens’ commuters travel via the MTA. That means the majority of our borough, especially many residents of our community, rely on unreliable

 Dear Editor:

 "WE CERTAINLY NEED A DISTRACTION."

 Over the past few years, we have felt let down by the Big Entities running professional sports. Many fans have threatened BOYCOTTS but it has not materialized. I myself, fall into this category, and I'm sure many readers can relate to this. This Letter, will not get political, but it does seem that it has entered into some sports decisions. If you follow sports, I’m sure you have scratched your head a few times in the past few years

It is that time of year again where we will all be subjected to the crazy elf pictures when many of our social media friends try to outdo one another with their elaborate poses and shenanigans. Those of you with children that have been experiencing this for a few years, how do you keep it original?

For those of you like me who either have older children or no children at all, the Elf on the Shelf is a book that was published in 2005 by the genius mother-daughter team of Carol Aebersold and

Last week a friend forwarded me a Time magazine article titled, “Why Everyone Is So Rude Right Now.” Obviously everyone knows that I am obsessed with the behavior of my students, and people in general. The statistics in this article were staggering. One place where people have become ruder is the airline industry. According to the article, the FAA has fined misbehaving passengers over one million dollars so far this year. As I wrote in my restaurant etiquette column, restaurant managers are

Driving in New York City is a video game. It reminds me of the old video game Pole Position and the newer one Grand Theft Auto. My nephew, Tyler, plays a game where he drives like a lunatic and laughs. He runs things over, crashes and then can hop into a new car. It seems these games are becoming more real.

People in New York City, especially Rockaway and Broad Channel, need to learn how to drive. What people also need to do is to learn simple driver’s etiquette. PS: I really only drive from

Over the years my family, friends and I have all worked in the restaurant industry. I used to say everyone should have to do a semester of hospitality work to become empathetic with the workers and understand walking a mile in their shoes. Unfortunately, not everyone has taken that semester of working in the restaurant industry, so a lesson in restaurant etiquette is needed. Since I know so many people in the industry, I sent out a few texts to servers from local restaurants and this is what

Thank you so much for all of your emails this past week. Everyone seems to be on the same page with people needing beach etiquette. I just want to note these rules are for everyone, not just our visitors. I just am so sad we had such a poor weather weekend that we could not try to implement the rules. 

Here are some we ran out of room for last week:

Rule 4: PDA. Our beach is a public beach, not a private beach on a romantic getaway. You may hold hands but do not make out in the water or on

I should have had this column in last week, but I did not know it was going to be such a spectacular weekend. I usually do not go swimming this early in the year and I almost went in for a dip!

Here is my annual beach etiquette column and it is for all of our new residents and our visitors that were pouring off of the ferry this past week. One loyal reader said Kevin should place my column as one of the photos on the boardwalk, but my suggestion has been ignored! 

Rule 1: When you get to the