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First Presbyterian Church Hosts Family Fun Day



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Time for a family fun day!

Time for a family fun day!

Far Rockaway’s First Presbyterian Church, CT3Designs and Project Arize, hosted its annual Family Fun Day Barbecue on Saturday, July 20. Sponsored by the Men’s Fellowship, the event has been taking place across three-decades now, beginning in the late-1990s on the opposite side of the church lawn.

Despite the sweltering heat, many members of the community and church came out to commemorate the occasion with one another. Those who attended battled the rising temperatures with plenty of free food, refreshments, and music to stay entertained.

The church’s lawn was set up accordingly with plenty of filled tables and chairs, and more tables further lined the perimeter with local groups providing assistance such as the Addabbo Family Health Center, New Horizon Counseling, the Queens Library and more. Local resident and relatively new church member Curtis Turney-Rentas, who helped organize the event, was especially thankful to these clinics and groups for coming out to support the community.

Curtis Turney-Rentas (right) with Khaleel Anderson running for 31st New York State Assembly District.

Curtis Turney-Rentas (right) with Khaleel Anderson running for 31st New York State Assembly District.

Turney-Rentas stressed the importance of this event for local youth, both in the community and in the parish.

“What I came into here to do is to help bring back the life and bring some youth-driven events here,” Turney Rentas said. “It’s just for the community and giving back. That’s what is needed in Far Rockaway.”

Anthony Austin of the Men’s Fellowship, which helps serve the First Presbyterian Church along its guidelines and reaches out to other local churches, echoed Turney-Rentas’ statement about youth involvement, which is especially important for the First Presbyterian Church.

“Youth are very important in this church. We are trying to develop the youth because for some time, our youth have been neglected,” Austin said. “But now the minister, that is one of her strong points, youth development. These youngsters are doing a great job in the church.”

This event was not the first time, nor will it be the last, that Turney- Rentas and his fellow youth have served those around them with local events. Before the Family Fun Day Barbecue, he helped organize a cleanup of the Motte Avenue train station with a group of Greek-letter organizations, and he also has been collecting school supplies in his “Back to School Drive”, among other things.

Moving forward, Turney-Rentas’ next venture is the first annual Far Rock National Pan-Hellenic Council Cook Out on August 3 at Bayswater Park.

Hopefully for everyone involved, the heat subsides for the day of the Cook Out. But, Turney-Rentas knows that weather is a small price to pay to put on a meaningful event for the members of his church and community.

“At the end of the day, things have to get done regardless. It’s hot but we’re going to stay out [at the barbecue] and have a good time,” Turney- Rentas said.

For more information, Turney- Rentas and his groups can be reached at ct3designs@yahoo.com or farrockawaynphc@gmail.com.

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