{"id":231059,"date":"2026-05-14T06:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T06:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/231059\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T06:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T06:12:17","slug":"brooklyn-has-big-presence-at-greek-independence-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/231059\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn has big presence at Greek Independence Parade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Many Brooklynites took part in the 87th annual New York City Greek Independence Day Parade, which kicked off at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 26, along Fifth Avenue from 61st to 74th Street.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s march commemorated the 205th anniversary of Greece\u2019s freedom from the Ottoman Empire.\u00a0It also saluted the 250th anniversary of American\u00a0independence.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The grand marshals\u00a0were\u00a0John Catsimatidis, chairman of the Red Apple Group, and\u00a0Nicholas Tsakos, founder and CEO of Tsakos Energy Navigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"644\" height=\"408\" data-id=\"228334\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Fantis.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-228334\"  \/>The A. Fantis School float.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"540\" height=\"328\" data-id=\"228329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Vallas.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-228329\"  \/>Civic leader Sandy Vallas drives officials from Holy Cross Cathedral.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1017\" height=\"417\" data-id=\"228327\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Plato.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-228327\"  \/>The Greek School of Plato Marching Band.<\/p>\n<p>The parade is hosted and coordinated\u00a0by the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York. Among the Brooklyn bands we spotted were Bay Ridge\u2019s Greek School of Plato, and Hellenic Classical Charter Schools, founded and headed by Bay Ridgeite\u00a0Christina Tettonis, superintendent of schools, as well as fellow Bay Ridge attorney and Board Chairman\u00a0Charles Capetanakis. Bay Ridge\u2019s Holy Cross Cathedral and DKG School officials rode in a black open platform limousine with Community Board Chairman\u00a0Sandy Vallas\u00a0at the wheel.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"540\" height=\"328\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Vallas.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-228329\"  \/>Civic leader Sandy Vallas drives officials from Holy Cross Cathedral.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>For the 60th annual Bay Ridge Ragamuffin Parade, there won\u2019t be a traditional \u201cPerson of the Year.\u201d Instead the parade committee has voted to honor four highly regarded community organizations. They are: Bay Ridge Cares, Bay Ridge Center, El-Rose Foundation and Guild for Exceptional Children<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"884\" data-id=\"228333\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/El-Rose.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-228333\"  \/>El-Rose Foundation Coats for the Cold.<br \/>Photo courtesy of Facebook<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"518\" data-id=\"228325\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Guild-1024x518.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-228325\"  \/>The Guild for Exceptional Children organization.<br \/>Photo courtesy of Guild for Exceptional Children<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"360\" data-id=\"228330\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Bay-Ridge-Cares-1024x360.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-228330\"  \/>Bay Ridge Cares.<br \/>Photo courtesy of Bay Ridge Cares<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"745\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Bay-Ridge-Center-1024x745.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-228331\"  \/>Bay Ridge Center.<br \/>Photo courtesy of Bay Ridge Center<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>Famous \u201cBlue Bloods\u201d and \u201cThe Sopranos\u201d TV and movie actor\u00a0Steve Schirripa\u00a0signed books at Bay Ridge\u2019s BookMark Shoppe, 8415 Third Ave., on Saturday afternoon, April 25.\u00a0He was debuting his new book, \u201cWillieBoy Eats the World.\u201d This guy is so incredibly popular, he drew a line a block and a half long of patrons who wanted to see him, get a picture with him and buy an autographed book.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"582\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Schirripa-582x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-228328\"  \/>Steve Schirripa at the BookMark Shoppe with proprietor Christine Freglette.<br \/>Eagle Urban Media\/Photo by Ted General<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many Brooklynites took part in the 87th annual New York City Greek Independence Day Parade, which kicked off&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-231059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}