What started as a few kids in hand-me-down clothes is now a full-blown Bay Ridge institution. On Sept. 27, the 59th annual Ragamuffin Parade took over Third Avenue in a celebration of community.
Kicking off at 1 p.m. from 76th Street and marching down to the Citizens Bank parking lot, the beloved neighborhood tradition brought out families and costumed flair.
This year’s Grand Marshals were longtime local business owners Bobby Daquara and John Keegan, the duo behind the Greenhouse Café and Cappuccino Café. Since becoming owners of the Cafe in 1990, they have been deeply involved with community fundraising and non-profits, like “Haley’s Comets Blood Drives” in memory of Daquara’s daughter. Through the organization, they have held “76 drives, close to 5,000 donations, and potentially 15,000 lives saved.”
The 2025 Person of the Year honor went to Captain John Dasaro, a Bay Ridge native and proud alumnus of Xaverian High School and St. Joseph’s College. He has been a Police Cadet at the NYPD’s 68th Precinct since 2007, and “continues to serve his neighborhood with unwavering dedication and a deep sense of responsibility.” He even marched in the parade as a child.
The parade route was packed with creative costumes — from Ghostbusters to Wednesday Addams. A ceremony honored the Grand Marshals and Captain Desaro.
The Ragamuffin Parade has been a Bay Ridge tradition since 1966, when “Father McKenna of Our Lady of Angels and Ridgeite Cliff Scanlon rounded up neighborhood children from different parishes to put on a parade, just for fun.”
While there were no costumes at the start, longtime committee member Joan Curran said that “kids just wore their parents’ clothes so they looked messy like little ragamuffins. It was priceless.”
