Dave Winfield Honored At Oheka

Celebrity watching is on the menu at Oheka Castle tonight when former Yankee Dave Winfield receives a lifetime achievement award from the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences at a gala dinner.

Tonight at Oheka Castle, Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Dave Winfield will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his constant charitable leadership. The award will be presented by The American Academy of Hospitality Sciences (AAHS) at the Six Star Diamond Gala Event that is in celebration of the launch of the AAHS strategic partnership with Starplus.

Former Yankee All Star Dave Winfield will be honored for his charitable work at a gala at Oheka.

Winfield, whose on-field career spanned from 1973 to 1995 and who played for the New York Yankees from 1981 to 1990, is a 12-time All Star, and seven-time Gold Glove Award recipient, among many other performance related awards. However, he is being honored for his off-field charitable work. Winfield founded the David M. Winfield Foundation in 1977 as a way to give back to the community. His notable leadership is demonstrated through The Dave Winfield Nutrition Center at Hackensack University Medical Center and his work in partnership with Merck Pharmaceuticals to create the  internationally acclaimed bilingual substance abuse prevention program called “Turn it Around.” From holiday meal giveaways, to scholarships, to tickets to games, to funding health clinics, Winfield has shown his commitment to giving back in a substantial way.

Among the notable celebrity watchers might glimpse at Oheka tonight, from left, are Armand Assante, Rita Coby, Nicky Hilton, Tony LoBianco and Anthony Scaramucci.

Some of the notable guests and additional AAHS award recipients expected to be in the crowd tonight will be financier, entrepreneur, and political figure Anthony Scaramucci, entrepreneur, model and dashion designer Nicky Hilton, traditional and experimental brush and ink work master Cao Jun,  actors Armand Assante and Tony LoBianco, and Dr. Nicholas Perricone, a dermatologist, businessman and author of self-help books about weight loss and maintaining the appearance of youth.

Rita Cosby, Emmy Award-winning journalist for Fox News, MSNBC and most recently a special contributor to Inside Edition. Cosby, will present the awards. Cosby wrote the books Quiet Hero: Secrets from My Father’s Past and Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith’s Death.

All of the awards will be part of The Starplus Gala Event at Oheka Castle.

Starplus Index® is a blockchain based asset index co-founded by Blue Ocean Capital, Moral Integrity International Ltd., and the AAHS.

Blue Ocean Capital is a private equity company headquartered in New York City. Headed by Antony Liu and Partner Lina Li, BOC is a cross-border investment firm dedicated to actively pursuing investment opportunities in Blockchain Applications, Healthcare, Franchise Restaurants, and Real Estate. Committed to capital appreciation and value creation they strive to be successful in structuring their approach to client transactions quickly and efficiently.

Moral Integrity International Ltd. is a leading blockchain technology company headquartered in Hong Kong.

The American Academy of Hospitality Sciences is renowned worldwide for awarding excellence in the global travel and luxury services sector. Each year the Academy bestows its coveted International Star Diamond Award on Five- and Six-Star quality hotels, spas, golf courses, restaurants, chefs, destinations, airlines, cruise lines and products. This award is a prestigious emblem of achievement and quality in the hospitality and luxury services industries worldwide. All its recipients are deemed to be of pinnacle quality and global recognition.

The venue of Oheka Castle was well suited for such a gala. As a Six Star Diamond Award recipient, the Castle is a world class venue with a world class restaurant, but it is also listed on the Historic Hotels Worldwide, Gold Coast Mansions, Historic Long Island, Historic Hotels of America (National Trust for Historic Presentation) and is an AAA Four-Diamond Award winner. Under the watch of Huntington’s Gary Melius, the Castle was meticulously restored to its original splendor and thrives as a global destination.

Firefighters Heed Call To ‘Never Forget’

East Northport firefighter commemorated the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in ceremonies at Fire Department headquarters.

By Connor Beach
cbeach@longislandergroup.com

Fire Departments from around the Town of Huntington hosted memorial ceremonies on Tuesday to honor and remember the victims who lost their lives on Sept. 11.

The East Northport Fire Department hosted its annual memorial on Tuesday morning at department headquarters on 9th Avenue in East Northport. Members of East Northport and neighboring fire and police departments joined the local community to remember the events of that tragic day.

“All Americans have made a promise to truly never forget,” East Northport Lt. Brian Hinton said.

A piece of steel from the World Trade Center stands in front of the East Northport Fire Department headquarters.

The firehouse siren blared at 9:59 a.m. and 10:28 a.m. to mark the respective times that the South and North Towers collapsed. The speakers podium was flanked by a special tribute to the first responders who died at the World Trade Center; an FDNY helmet with the number 343 and a police uniform bearing the number 71 represented the number of people from each service who died on 9/11.

Later that evening, the Cold Spring Harbor Fire Department held a candlelight vigil in front of the 9/11 memorial that stands in Cold Spring Harbor Fireman’s Park across Main Street from the firehouse.

The memorial, which was officially dedicated in June, contains a massive steel beam from the World Trade Centers. The massive steel beam was one of the last remaining physical pieces of the Twin Towers when the Cold Spring Harbor Fire Department acquired it in 2016.

Cold Spring Harbor Fire Department held a candlelight vigil Tuesday evening in front of the 9/11 memorial in Cold Spring Harbor Fireman’s Park where a piece of steel recovered from Ground Zero is the centerpiece of the memorial.

The waters of Cold Spring Harbor served as a solemnly picturesque background for Tuesday evening’s vigil.

“Let us not forget those who perished on that beautiful September morning 17 years ago,” 9/11 memorial committee chairman Tom Buchta said. “Let us all press forward, never forgetting the sacrifices that were made that day.”

Firefighters, town officials and members of the community held candles as Buchta read the names of the 43 victims from the Town of Huntington.

A memorial at Huntington Manor Fire Department’s Station 2 is dedicated to former department chief and FDNY firefighter Peter A. Nelson who died in the towers’ collapse.

In Huntington Station, the Huntington Manor Fire Department dedicated a 9/11 memorial at Station 2 between East 23rd and 24th Streets on New York Avenue.

During the candlelight vigil on Tuesday night, Huntington Manor dedicated a memorial to former department chief and FDNY firefighter Peter A. Nelson. Nelson, a firefighter with the FDNY’s elite Rescue 4, was killed while on duty during 9/11.

The steel used to create the monument comes from the rails of the PATH train that ran directly below the World Trade Center.

Former Chief Peter Nelson

The memorial’s inscription states, “Blending this location and that steel we tie Peter’s two firefighting worlds together while providing a place that ensures generations to come… Never Forget.”

Town Remembers Victims Of 9/11

As the names of those killed were read aloud, a veteran placed a single rose in a container. Long Islander News photos/Peter Sloggatt

At ceremonies held Sunday in Heckscher Park, Huntington remembered the 43 town residents who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Family and friends of those being remembered were among the hundred or so who gathered on a drizzly, grey Sunday before the town’s 9/11 memorial, a narrow path lined with jagged steel columns that leads to a water feature.

Traditionally staged on the anniversary of the attacks, this year’s ceremony was moved to Sunday both to accommodate Rosh Hashanah as well as the wishes of family members who have found it difficult to attend the ceremonies on a weekday, said Huntington Supervisor Chad Lupinacci, who emceed the ceremonies.

An Honor Guard of veterans group representatives presented the colors the 9/11 Memorial service at Heckscher Park Sunday.

Saying that on that day 17 years ago, “our lives were changed forever,” Lupinacci welcomed the families in attendance as “those who suffered the pain of the 9/11 terror attacks in a profound way.

“It is in memory of your loved ones that we gather here today,” he said, noting that “they were our neighbors and our friends,” and despite the years that pass, “they will never be forgotten.”

A lone piper plays Amazing Grace from among the rows of jagged steel beams that make up the September 11 Memorial in Heckscher Park.