Things are looking up at TR Memorial Park. There will be a Guinness Book of World Records event there on Sunday, Oct. 9 and on Thursday, Oct. 13 the Pearls of Oyster Bay installation will be put into place next to the new gazebo overlooking the beach.
This will not be the opening of the new multisport field, it was the only place in the township that Craig Pinto could use for his event, without displacing other teams already using the town’s sports locations.
On Sunday, Oct. 9, Craig Pinto, a Jericho native, Mineola resident, will be christening the brand new football field at Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park as he attempts to break the Guinness Book of World Records for most American football field goals in a 24-hour period of 1,000! He currently holds the record of 717 in a 12-hour period. He does all of this to shed light upon celiac disease which he has – and to garner support for his nonprofit, Kicking4Celiac.
Kicking4Celiac teaches children how to live with celiac and will be providing college scholarships to students who have the dietary disease, as they go on to college to help defray the high costs of their special dietary needs.
Craig played football for Hofstra University and played in the professional Arena League for the New Jersey Revolution as the kicker, where he was also named the team captain and was the oldest rookie in the league.
Community Project
Thursday, Oct. 13 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. there will be a thank you celebration at TR beach for Jerelyn Hanrahan’s Pearls of Oyster Bay installation. “It can’t wait. It’s exciting,” said Jerelyn. “There will be live music by Jilly Live and it is just to thank for all the people involved in the process and a celebration to finally see this piece in.
“Thank God I get my life back. It looks great but I’ve been sanding cement for hours a day to get the surface right,” she said breezily.
One of the key ingredients to the installation was getting the insurance which is needed by the town for the use of the park. Insurance Plus of Oyster Bay is doing just that.
Jerelyn has a long list of companies and people who have been instrumental in creating this monumental project. It was inspired in a project for benches at Oyster Bay High School that was being run by Laurette Kovary, which featured Ms. Hanrahan. The finished project should inspire young artists in that it is a lesson in “perseverance makes for performance”.
Ms. Hanrahan is grateful to Bruce Cook and Peter Lizza for doing the transport and using their cranes for the installation. Thanks go to John Lancia who helped with the work site for the finishing work and gave her a worker; Pereira Construction of Locust Valley, for doing the casting; and Connie Cincotta, of Glenwood Mason, for the production materials.
There are other people to thank. These are the handson people. The Pearls will be moved on Tuesday, the day after Columbus Day starting at 7 a.m. There will be installation work done in the park. “It really is a community project,” said artist Hanrahan.
The Pearls of Oyster Bay represents great local groups and locations. The installation will be in place in time for the Oyster Festival, Oct. 15 and 16 – from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
See you at the Oyster Festival – and the two events preceding it. We will all have worked up a great appetite by then.
– DFK
