When I decided to make this trip to the New York area for Thanksgiving, I must admit, there was a small part of me that wondered/worried that I would miss the standard Thanksgiving Day festivities.

After about five minutes on Coney Island today, that all vanished. When we decided to come, this is what I envisioned Thanksgiving Day could look like. Combined with our experiences on Staten Island yesterday, what happened today will give me and my kids (my mom, too!) some indellible memories.

The operation at MCU Park (home of the Brooklyn Cyclones) was impressive, thanks to the fine work of the Alliance for Coney Island (Once again, check out their site at coneyrecovers.org). They were handing out food, serving hot meals AND busing folks to a big catering hall for a sit-down Thanksgiving dinner. Simply amazing.

We got right to work, wherever help was needed, spending the next couple of hours bagging snacks, bagging hot turkey dinners and handing them out to people who came. And, sadly, there were a lot of people in need. I was told the line stretched out of the parking lot and down the street at 8 a.m., so even more kudos to the Alliance for Coney Island for serving all those people and helping them have some semblance of a holiday.

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Former big leaguer John Halama, in the slideshow above, who lives in Bay Ridge, came to help as well. And here’s the amazing thing. He was just fine being there without anyone knowing who he was. He just wanted to help his fellow New Yorkers out. I did make sure that NY1 interviewed him while they were down there — if anyone happened to see it, let me know — but he certainly wasn’t looking for publicity. He just wanted to help people. Oh, and he’s trilingual — didn’t even speak English until he was around 9 — who knew?

I’ll have video of this, with Halama and Nate Bliss from the Alliance for Coney Island, but didn’t have the wherewithal to get it done tonight. The work is just beginning. But I’ll tell you, New Yorkers are resilient. The positivity that came from these people, who have been through so much, was inspiring. As my son said so astutely, especially for an 11-year-old: “They’re all so appreciative.”

And that was my hope for this trip. To be inspired and hopefully inspire my kids. There’s a basic concept we talk about in our family — “living by our ideals” — and this felt like the perfect way to do this for this holiday. I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of my children, watching them give food to families, to kids their own age at times, along with a smile. These two days are among my proudest as a parent.

So we’ll drive home tomorrow, and thanks to the wonderful Mrs. B3 and her parents (that’s right, I love my in-laws!), we’re having our own Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. Without their flexibility and support, this wouldn’t have been so easy to pull off.

And I can assure you, for me and hopefully my two kids, we will never be the same. The folks we served today were appreciative. But it us who should give thanks, to have the ability to help in a time of need, to lift spirits when they are down. As my daughter said, when I asked her about what it was like to give food to kids her own age, she said, “I thought about that if you hadn’t moved from New York, maybe we could have been hit by the hurricane.” In other words, like with any of life’s tragedies, you learn that you never know when it could be you who needs help. The fact that my kids understand that, and the need to always pay it forward, is priceless.

OK, I’ve waxed on about this for long enough, but don’t be shocked if I do throw in some more posts on baseball meeting social consciousness in the future.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

It was an eventful day on Wednesday for the B3 fam, our first full one since arriving in the NJ/NY area with a van full of canned goods. We drove to Staten Island, to the distribution center for the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation.

The distribution center, by the way, is a sight to behold. Just a couple of weeks ago, it was an abandoned building. It’s been painted, wired for electricity and unbelievably well-organized, so folks can come in and find the things they need. I liked what the Siller Foundation was doing from afar, but seeing it up close, I am blown away by what they’ve already accomplished.

Earlier in the day, former Met great John Franco was kind enough to go to the MLB.com studios to talk about the hurricane relief work going on and how baseball is involved. He’s been working with the Siller Foundation closely and also talked about the work that ConeyRecovers is doing on Coney Island (we will be there tomorrow, so if you’re volunteering, let me know and say hello. Former big leaguer John Halama will be there to help out). It’s a great interview, so I encourage all to watch.

After dropping off all the cans — see slideshow below for the B3 kids in action — we then got the chance to ride around the surrounding area with Gary Perone of the Brooklyn Cyclones. Gary has been instrumental in getting Minor League Baseball involved in efforts here (Staten Island, Brooklyn and down in Lakewood, NJ — three minor league markets hit hard). He also helped organize the Siller Foundation’s distribution center. So many New Yorkers have stepped up to help out, and Gary has done more than most. Seeing the devastation up close after having just seen TV footage is jarring, to say the least. I remember being in New Orleans the spring after Katrina and feeling the same way. The areas we saw were startling, if not quite as horrible as the tour of the lower 9th Ward I was on back then (there are areas in Staten Island and other places that are), but in some ways it was more startling to see one spot seem almost “back to normal” and another spot nearby condemned. There’s a long way to go, for sure.

After that tour, we met up with the folks from the Siller Foundation — meeting Frank Siller was a thrill and everyone there greeted us as family — and then headed to one of three Thanksgiving dinners being held for victims of the hurricane on Staten Island. Joining us was Major Leaguer Jason Marquis and he was kind enough to chat with me for a few minutes. On the video, you can also see some footage of the distribution center.

It was an unbelievable day and evening, one we’ll never forget. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow on Coney Island has in store. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I, for one, am feeling incredibly grateful for everything in my life and all the people in  it, including the ones we just met who are doing such fine work here.

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