Kevin Frank, executive director of the Brady Faith Center, enjoys line dancing Sept. 17 at the Brady Market Neighborhood Health and Wellness Fair. “Just really wanted to celebrate our neighborhood, and celebrate our neighbors,” Frank said. “We have a great neighborhood. We have great neighbors. What makes a great neighborhood is the people.” (Sun photo | Tom Maguire)
By Tom Maguire, Associate editor
They passed the great Kingston test on the Empire State Trail.
“We made it! We’re alive!” said Kevin Frank, executive director of the Brady Faith Center on the south side of Syracuse. He was among the Brady stalwarts who recently bicycled about 580 miles from the Brady Farm on the south side to New York City to raise funds for the faith center.
“We raised over $50,000” and the money is still coming in, Frank said. “And that’s wonderful. It also gets our name out, right? So people hear about what we’re doing and maybe hear about Brady for the first time, maybe they’re curious and want to know more.”
The grueling bike trip grew especially difficult when the bikers hit a construction zone on “this huge bridge coming into Kingston.” Trucks were going by, Frank said, but brave bikers “had to cross both lanes, throw our bikes up over the barrier, climb over the barrier and then ride our bikes on the pedestrian lane over the rest of the bridge; it was wild.”
The Erie Canalway Trail is a route from Buffalo to Albany, and when the Brady bikers thought about how tired they were, Frank said, “we thought about the people who actually dug out the canal by hand. And we were like, … we’ve got it easy.”
Market fair gets ’em dancin’
Frank appeared to have recovered Sept. 17, when he was spotted joining the line dance at the Brady Market Neighborhood Health and Wellness Fair on the near-southwest side of Syracuse.
“I’ve got a young spirit, I guess,” he said.
The fair included educational pieces for seniors and families. Participants included Le Moyne College’s Center For Aging Resources & Enrichment and the Syracuse Housing Authority. Offerings included blood-pressure checks, vision screening, games for children, a bike giveaway and free pumpkins, apples and children’s books.
Brady Market, at 307 Gifford St., is a nonprofit grocery store with retail, deli/catering, wholesale grocery operations, job training and wrap-around healing-support services. It features a meat department, deli, hot/cold grab-and-go catering, fresh produce, cold and frozen selections, dry goods and middle-store staples. All proceeds go back into the programming.
“We’re the only place that neighbors can get healthy fresh produce and fruits,” Frank said. “We have great meat cutters.”
