Good Morning, Brooklyn: Wednesday, August 10, 2022

NEW PROBATIONARY FIREFIGHTERS: The New York City Fire Department yesterday graduated 231 probationary firefighters during a ceremony held at the Christian Cultural Center on Flatlands Avenue. Acting Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh presided at the ceremony, which was the culmination of 18 weeks at the FDNY Training Academy, where they learned fire suppression and medical response, hazardous materials, collapsed and confined space-rescue training, auto extrication, building inspections and procedures for engine and ladder operations.

The new class of firefighters has eight women, bringing the total number of female Firefighters to 141 – the most in FDNY history.

✰✰✰

VEHICLES SOUGHT IN 2020 DRIVE-BY-SHOOTING INVESTIGATION: The NYPD, in an ongoing investigation of a case from two years ago, asks the public’s assistance in ascertaining the whereabouts of the unidentified vehicles (in video) sought in connection with a homicide within the 81^st Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Derrick Garner, 41, was shot once in the left forearm and once in left side by unknown individuals operating three vehicles traveling eastbound on Decatur Street through the intersection of Reid Avenue, on Monday, August 17, 2020.  The victim was removed to Kings County Hospital where he was later pronounced deceased.

Anyone with information on this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/ or on Twitter @NYPDTips

✰✰✰

MISSING CHILD FROM BROWNSVILLE: The NYPD seeks the public’s assistance in finding a missing child who resides within the 73^rd Precinct, which encompasses Brownsville-Ocean Hill. Natalia Acuna Botero, age 12, was last seen on Friday, August 5, at 9:15 p.m., inside her home. She is described as being approximately 5’6″ tall, weighing 120 lbs., with a thin build, light skin complexion, brown eyes and black hair, and wearing a blue t-shirt and black jeans.

Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).

✰✰✰

BROOKLYN PASTOR CALLED AS RIVERSIDE CHURCH’S NEW MINISTER: The Riverside Church on Sunday, August 7 launched a series of videos to introduce their 8^th called Senior Minister, the Rev. Adriene Thorne, who for six years has served as the senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn. Starting in October, Pastor Thorne will also become the landmark Riverside Church’s first woman African-American pastor.

First Presbyterian Church marks its founding bicentennial this year, and under Pastor Thorne’s leadership in 2019 won the Brooklyn Heights Association’s Community Service Award particularly for its meal ministry.

✰✰✰

BOOK TALK ON JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS’ AMERICA: Can one make sense of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas’ America? The Center for Brooklyn History, in partnership with NYU’s Brooklyn-based 370 Jay Project, presents a talk next month, presents a talk on Wednesday, September 7 with Corey Robin, one of the foremost analysts of the right, with insights on American conservatism. His ground-breaking books, The Enigma of Clarence Thomas, The Reactionary Mind and Fear: The History of a Political Idea, explain the narrative that brings the nation to these unprecedented political times.

Registration link to this BPL/Center for Brooklyn History “Talks in the Othmer” series event is https://www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/talks-othmer-corey-robin-center-for-brooklyn-20220907

✰✰✰

MUSIC CONSERVATORY KEPT STRONG DURING PANDEMIC: The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, being a school of the arts, has creatively met the challenges of the pandemic, according to the BCM’s 2022 Impact Report, released yesterday. Among the accomplishments of the past two years have been welcoming Uton Onyejekwe, BCM’S first Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; retaining staff and faculty through the Great Resignation with salary increases, increased PTO and the rollout of a sabbatical program; conducting a successful major donor program and deepened institutional relationships that have grown BKCM’s contributed revenue by 22% annually for six years; and doing a case study on BKCM’s first Community Music Center in Cypress Hills: a scalable new model for serving families directly, at convenient and accessible locations, that was catalyzed by COVID-era adaptations.

BKCM had entered the darkest days of 2020 already from a position of strength due to community support and the extraordinary commitment of its staff and faculty, and served more than 6,200 students at 67 sites citywide – nearing its pre-COVID presence and reach.

✰✰✰

GRANT PANELISTS SOUGHT FOR ARTS COUNCIL: Art and culture experts are invited to become Grant Panelists for the Brooklyn Arts Council in the coming year of reviewing proposals. Brooklyn Arts Council uses a panel selection process to review proposals and determine awards. Since grants are awarded to a wide variety of artists throughout Brooklyn, panelists are sought from all of the borough’s neighborhoods.

Panelist Application Deadline: October 20, 2022, via https://brooklynartscouncil.submittable.com/submit/233218/2023-grant-panel-nomination-form

✰✰✰

BOROUGH HALL HOSTS CELEBRATING TRINIDAD & TOBAGO’S INDEPENDENCE: Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso hosts an event to celebrate the 60^th anniversary of the Independence of Trinidad and Tobago, this Thursday, August 11, from 5-8 p.m. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, about 200,000 respondents identified their heritage as Trinidadian.

The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, a two-island Caribbean nation located near the South American countries of Venezuela and Guyana, achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1962 and that same year obtained membership in the Commonwealth and the United Nations that same year. It became a republic in 1976.