Family Church Street Clean-Up with OANA: Wrap-Up

Following up on the very successful street clean up on September 16 organized by OANA and Family Church, Lucas Izidoro, lead pastor of Family Church, recently gave an interview discussing how he has chosen to influence his church family to have more of a presence in the local community.

‘“One thing was clear to me,” he shared, “we needed to create bridges between our ethnic church and the local English-speaking community. I knew this would be a long-term endeavor, but we’ve been taking intentional steps towards being a community church—one that is a true community of faith in Astoria that is wholeheartedly committed to loving God and loving all people. We’ve trusted that the Holy Spirit would highlight people of peace in the community that we would partner with to make a difference. Richard Khuzami, the Director of the Old Astoria Neighborhood Association (OANA), is one of those people. Through OANA, we’ve been able to listen incarnationally to the needs of the community and then take some steps towards meeting those needs.”’

Once again, OANA would like to thank Pastor Lucas, Victor Prada and all from Family Church for their hard work and organizational skills, as well as the volunteers without whom the Street Clean-Up would not have happened. OANA and Family Church awarded certificates to Kevin Hernandez of GIL Homes for providing logistical support, garbage disposal, and supplies, Randy Gordin of R and R General Supply for providing supplies and The Latino Network of JLL for donating lunch.

The goal of the clean-up was to shed a light on the condition of our local streets. Because many streets do not have any street cleaning at all, we have many that are strewn constantly with garbage. Also, with the lack of Alternate Side Parking, many drivers in NYC (especially from outside our neighborhood) are using our streets as long-term parking because the cars do not have to be moved.

OANA is now working directly with the Department of Sanitation through the efforts of Councilman Costa Constantinides to rectify this issue in Old Astoria.

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Photos: Camila B Montanhani of Family Church
Certificates: Jackie Strawbridge