I’m madder than a wookie with whooping cough over this poor guy who had his homemade lightsaber stolen from him when he was out drinking with his buddies.
Look, you all know that I’m no fan of any wars outside of the ones we declare on noisy trains, but when someone gets his heart and soul taken away from him, after working for years on perfecting something, well the Big Screecher’s heart bleeds just a little bit. So when I heard about this poor Jedi, I was taken back to the time when I learned about someone stealing an old guy’s scooter out from under him. And when I thought about that, I also thought about the time someone stole one of my meatball sandwiches I loved to eat as a kid on the shores of Coney Island. But I digress. Look, the fact is people shouldn’t steal — even if it is from some nerd who doesn’t know what to do with all his free time. You know what he should do? He should take dancing lessons from yours truly. If he does that, he’ll never have to worry about his lightsaber again.
Now, let me tell you about a young lady who does not what to do with her free time: it’s Priscilla Consolo, who is the recipient of my Bensonhurst West End Civic Council’s newest award the BWECC! Outstanding Student Activist Award.
You know, it takes a lot to get inspired these days, but every so often, someone inspires me so much, I name an award after them. In this case, that person is Priscilla, who I worked with at my less-important job at Assemblyman Colton’s office.
When you read her bio, you’ll agree with me that she could one day be our mayor, governor, president or even saint, which, believe it or not, is an elected position.
Priscilla was born in March of 1994 (wait a second! 1994! Jiminy Crickets!) who grew up in Gravesend and is now in her senior-year at Midwood High School, in the Humanities Honors Institute, of course, with a concentration in the Gilder-Lehrman Scholars Program of American History, where her grades put at the top of class.
Now, I’d be lying to you if I knew what all that meant, but there is no doubt in my mind that is an impressive resume for such a young lady.
As Midwood, Priscilla is the chairwoman of the Senate Judiciary Committee of Model Congress, the co-editor-in-chief of the school’s Literary Arts Magazine, “Patterns.” (nice name, eh?), and is the editor social studies magazine, “Forum.” She co-founded and is co-president of the school’s Young Writers’ Club, which she began in her freshmen year to cultivate and share her love of writing.
But Priscilla’s community involvement doesn’t stop at school. At Our Lady of Grace church. Priscilla is a Teen Leader in the parish’s Teen Youth Ministry program, in which she helps mentor fellow adolescents and takes part in various community service activities. Additionally, Priscilla is a member of their Altar Service Ministry, joining in the fourth grade, and was selected as a co-leader to help train and assist new servers. She also volunteers as a lector. Priscilla considers her Catholic faith a source of strength and inspiration, believing that it ignited her passion for serving others.
As such, Priscilla has aspired to become involved in government service, and got an opportunity to intern at Assemblyman Colton’s office last summer, where she did such a good job, Colton offered her a paid position s his special assistant, making her one of the youngest employee of the New York State Assembly.
Working with Colton, Priscilla spearheaded the successful “Speak up and clean up” campaign to keep our neighborhood clean. In total, the campaign acquired the help of over five-hundred young volunteers and cleaned more than 50 blocks in the neighborhood.
Upon graduation, Priscilla is planning to attend a prestigious college where she will major in political science or government. Additionally, she hopes to attend law school and receive a masters degree in public administration, and dreams of one day publishing her writing. Most importantly, however, Priscilla aspires to continue to serve the community and country that she loves, wanting to be “not a typical politician,” but a sincere and devoted crusader for the powerless and silenced — “a true public servant.”
You gotta agree this kid is something else. And that’s why we are honoring her. So if you want to join us, make reservations for the BWECC 51st Gala at the El Caribe, on March 22nd.
And Priscilla, keep your 500 clean-up volunteers home, because I’m afraid they’ll swarm the place and eat all my food.
Screech at you next week!
Read Carmine's screech every Saturday on BrooklynDaily.com. E-mail him at DiegoVega@aol.com.
