You can’t deny the big hearts of rubber-burning Brooklynites.
The line of cyclists extended deep into the green surrounding the John Malone Community Center in Bergen Beach as members of the St. Bernard’s Knight of Columbus put the pedal to the metal, alongside uniformed workers and civilians, and headed towards Flatbush Avenue on a benefit bike tour to the Aviator Sports Complex at Floyd Bennett Field to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project — led by the brother of the first soldier to be killed in the Persian Gulf War.
Chris McCarthy — whose sibling, Maj. Eugene McCarthy, has a monument erected in his memory near the family’s Midwood home — helped organize the 10K race with his father, Ed, brothers John and Edward, and Dr. Pietro Baio, to help assimilate gravely-wounded soldiers back into society; some of them paraplegics, others limbless and a great many too traumatized to make it on their own.
“It demonstrates the community’s support for those men and women who serve our country in the United States and abroad,” said Grand Knight Frank Carone, Grand Knight, who served in the Marines.
The race, sponsored by Biofreeze, El Caribe Caterers, Muscle Milk and New York Aviator Hockey, also honored the memory of Marine Lance Cpl. Michael D. Glover, who died during a combat operation in Fallujah, Iraq, on Aug. 16, 2006.
— Shavana Abruzzo
