Promoting community involvement to the fullest

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If you ask Sea Cliff Civic Association president Ann DiPietro about her contributions to the village, she will simply give credit to the people she has worked with. But DiPietro has helped to organize several events throughout the village for over a decade. She said she is “grateful” for everything this community has to offer.

“It is a wonderful sisterhood that we have,” DiPietro said. “The civic association board is so smart, they are such giving people, and they just make it so easy to do our events.”

DiPietro’s involvement with the community began in 1989 when she joined the village library’s board. The previous director of the Stenson Memorial Library had moved to another country shortly after and DiPietro was offered the position. She said it was a great fit for her because she has always loved children’s literature.

“I saw this as a real opportunity for community organizing,” she said. “I thought to myself that this would be a great place to start.”

At the library, she hosts several events for children and parents with help from the civic association such as Pizza and Picture Books, Story Hour for Preschoolers, and Movie Madness.

Prior to her move to Sea Cliff, DiPietro lived with her husband, Dan, in Floral Park, and she taught at St. John’s University as an English teacher. She visited the village with Dan and some of her closest friends 30 years ago and said she was drawn to the community’s beauty and its Victorian homes right away.

“The village looks the same as it did 30 years ago,” she said. “We loved it then and we still love it to this day.”

One of the events she is proud of is Meet the Parents, a new event she started this year, where young parents get together to socialize about parenthood. She was inspired by her daughter, Gillian, who currently lives in Brooklyn and recently had her first child. Her daughter signed up for an organization in Brooklyn where people new to parenthood meet regularly. DiPietro saw this as a great monthly event that can be included in her home village since the population is a lot smaller than Brooklyn.

“So many of them already have told me that they meet with each other at restaurants and yoga classes,” she added. “They all started out in Meet the Parents. Talk about a dream come true, this is a really what I hoped would happen.”

DiPietro has nothing but nice things to say about her years in Sea Cliff. She has enjoyed every moment and she is glad that she was able to raise her children — Jillian, Daniel, and Justin — in this village. She added that her passion for the village has not changed one bit. In fact, it has consumed her so much that she did not even realize she has lived in the community for nearly three decades.

“Every single day that I have spent here has been great,” DiPietro said. “I feel that I have never worked a day in my life. I do not know what it is, but there is something magical about this place.”