By Doug Miller
The Oak Memorial Scholarship was founded by O'Keefe's sister, Noreen Costello of Lynbrook, who works in the Long Beach corporation counsel's office at City Hall. There is just one fund-raiser each year, but it's a crackerjack effort: a regatta from Rockaway Inlet to Jones Beach inlet. Once a year, the sporting crowd descends on the barrier island to talk tall ships and compare jibs, foretriangles, clews, luffs, boomkins and, yes, displacements.
The foundation names a scholarship winner and two honorable mentions. The 2004 winner received $16,000, paid out over four years. The two honorable mention winners, including Jose Naranjo of Long Beach, each received $4,000.
The winners are picked via an essay contest, and must meet one of two criteria. They either must have lost a parent to an act of violence, as Naranjo did, or be a first-generation American making a fresh start in life. The child-of-violence essay makes sense, but why the other?
"It was an emotional decision," Costello said. "My brother's funeral went on for miles, as everyone's did. As we came out of the church, there were two Hispanic guys sobbing, sobbing, crying harder than anyone. I asked around and found out they worked with Pat at his construction job. One day they mentioned to him that they had never seen the ocean before, so on a Saturday he took them sailing.
"My brother did so much for people, so we decided to make the theme about starting over, for kids who lost a parent or for our newest Americans."
The 2004 winner was Nathalie Uwera, a senior at Cathedral High School from Brooklyn who, as a little girl, survived the ethnic cleansing in Rwanda. Naranjo, a Long Beach High senior who came to the U.S. from Ecuador, won the $4,000 honorable mention, along with Monsignor Scanlon senior Omar Phillips, who is newly arrived from Jamaica.
The next Spirit Rider Regatta will be held off Long Beach's shores on Patriot's Weekend, Sept. 9-11. Tickets for the preferred viewing stand on National Boulevard are available, and donations are welcome. There is a reception and dinner for the captains and crews Sept. 9 at the West End Fire House. The racers will muster at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 10, and the race will begin at 11. Spectators will gather for coffee, donuts and clam chowder under the tent at National.
That night there will be an awards dinner at Lawrence Country Club, and the next morning, Sunday, Sept. 11, Mass will be celebrated on the beach.
The money goes to the scholarships, but the crowd gets a good return on its investment with the majestic show the boats put on. Costello's daughter, for instance, is a first lieutenant in the Marine Corps and a 2003 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. So this year her alma mater will be sending a 44-foot schooner -- manned by a crew of Midshipmen -- to compete. SUNY Maritime will also be entering a team.
For ticket or sponsorship information, call (516) 662-0485. It's not your typical firefighter party, but then, O'Keefe wasn't your typical firefighter. He was a sailor, his sister said, who moved out to Suffolk and loved the open space and the open sea. He volunteered to rebuild homes in the Dominican Republic that were destroyed by hurricanes -- besides just the everyday heroism that came with membership in the FDNY.
Comments about this story? DMiller@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
