A Prepare New York Coffee Hour event entitled “Building an Inclusive New York: How Far Have We Come? Where Can We Go From Here?” was held on Sunday, November 6, at St. Bartholomew’s Church. An article promoting the event was published in the Staten Island Advance.
Featured participants in this event were:
Moderator – the Rev. Buddy Stallings, Vicar of St. Bartholomew’s.
Speaker: Gerry Bogacz, planning director for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC) since 1997, is a survivor of two attacks on the World Trade Center. He is an active member of the 9/11 Community for Common Ground Initiative, which brings together volunteers from the 9/11 community – family members, survivors, recovery workers – and seeks to highlight the common ground shared by different religious and cultural groups.
Speaker: Hesham El-Meligy, an interfaith and community leader from Staten Island, is a founding member of the Building Bridges Coalition of Staten Island, the New York Neighbors for American Values Coalition, and the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms. A member of Staten Island Clergy Leadership, he is the current coordinator for the Coalition for Muslim School Holidays and a trustee to the Muslim Foundation of America. He received the “Peacemaker” award from Peace Action in 2009.
