Thrilla in Camilla gave everyone something to talk about. The 5th Annual Thrilla in Camilla drew in crowds from near and far to watch FDNY Boxing duke it out with some worthy opponents, to root for their favorites in grudge matches and to raise money for some of America’s heroes.

On Friday, July 16, the St. Camillus schoolyard was packed as people came out to FDNY Boxing’s first home-turf event in two years. FDNY Boxing dominated in several of the fights over opponents from various

The results are official. On Tuesday, July 20, the NYC Board of Elections certified the primary results for most elections. Besides the number of votes, not much has changed for the results.

For the mayoral race, Eric Adams is officially the democrat nominee. After all votes were counted and ranked choice voting rounds were completed, he had 50.4% of the vote to Kathryn Garcia’s 49.6%. The difference is 7,197 votes. Adams faces Republican Curtis Sliwa, who had 67.9% of the vote, in the general

 On Saturday, July 17, Rockaway honored athlete, teacher, lifeguard, friend, and a true Rockaway girl, Cristin Mullen, with an event that radiated everything she loved.

 In the morning, participants of the Cristin Mullen Run gathered in the St. Rose of Lima schoolyard for last-minute registration and number pickup. Then they made their way to the boardwalk on Beach 84th Street, where bagpipes awaited participants ready to start the day. The 5k race was the first to start. Around 180 people

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The Rockaway Times Photo Contest Final will be Friday, July 30 at 5 p.m. at Caracas at Beach 106th on the Boardwalk. All Top 30 finalists are invited (there will be happy hour prices courtesy of the sponsors Jamaica Bay Rockaway Parks Conservancy, NYC Ferry, The Rockaway Times and NYC Parks). Top 30 photographers can pick up their photos that day after the winner is chosen. See you there!

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Elizabeth Crowley conceded the Borough President race after finishing a very close second to

JULY 22

Kristina Iudica was born

Karen Grupinski was born.

Kevin Donohue was born.

1933 - Wiley Post became the first person to fly solo around the world.

1934 - John Dillinger was shot to death outside Chicago's Biograph Theater.

JULY 23

Clifford Baumann was born.

John Moroney was born.

1903 – The Ford Motor Company sells its first car.

JULY 24

Patty Cashman was born.

Kathie Hillis was born.

1974 - The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard

Bill Gehlhaus, that local guy with an offbeat eye, often posts Hipster of the Day (HOTD) photos online. In this shot, Bill caught a duo. You never know what you’ll see on the boardwalk or around town. And if you miss it, don’t worry, Bill’s got it covered. 

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The Rockaway Times Photo Contest Final will be Friday, July 30 at 5 p.m. at Caracas at Beach 106th on the Boardwalk. All Top 30 finalists are invited (there will be happy hour prices courtesy of the sponsors Jamaica Bay Rockaway Parks Conservancy, NYC Ferry, The Rockaway Times and NYC Parks). Top 30 photographers can pick up their photos that day after the winner is chosen. See you there!

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Elizabeth Crowley conceded the Borough President race after finishing a very close second to

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It might not be a word, but this summer's weather is underratedly bad.

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And then there were ten. At the start, we had to consider more than 1,300 photos which were submitted to the (fantastic!) Rockaway Times Photo Contest and after many rounds, nine judges eventually settled on a Top 30 and those photos were made poster-sized and placed on the boardwalk railing around Beach 95th Street. Next, we had the nearly impossible task of selecting the ten best. Our Facebook page has more

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Somebody’s gonna say otherwise, but we’re saying NYC Parks deserves a lot of praise for cleaning up so well after the 4th of July.

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Our Sandcastle contest is postponed. The date is TBA but please do not show up for the contest this Sunday, July 11!

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We jumped the shark! Previously at 2.7M, our video of Tess Howley's welcome home parade has officially reached more than 3 million people on Facebook. Wild.

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Have a splash! The 4th Annual Jamaica Bay Festival on City of

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The Rockaway Times wishes everyone a safe and Happy 4th of July!

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Two and a half million plus. 2.7 million and counting. That’s a lot of people. And that’s how many people viewed a Facebook post we put up last week. Katie McFadden shot a video of the parade for Tess Howley, who’d just returned from the Olympic trials in Omaha, Nebraska.

The wonderfully supportive community display clearly touched a lot of people, even worldwide. The comments and praise for Tess and Rockaway gave

Happy anniversary to…US! The Rockaway Times turns 7 on June 26. When we first published, the other Times, the New York one, called us “an unusual start-up,” since a good old fashioned newspaper was so different than many other media and internet start-ups.

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The National Park Service (NPS) runs Gateway National Park and Recreation Area. It sure seems like they forget the recreation part. The Rockaway Beach Volleyball League is still prohibited from running the Wednesday evening tradition

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Happy Father’s Day!  To all the dear old dads, we hope you have a great day.

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On Tuesday afternoon, we glanced out the backdoor and saw three men on The Hard Way Home. Three guys are rowing to Ireland. Rowing, yep. We yelled, Bon Voyage! and wished the young men well. Katie McFadden did a story on them in the May 13 issue. Unbelievable!

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So, by next week’s edition, 6/24, the robocalls will stop (or should stop) as Primary Day is Tuesday, June 22 but it’s unlikely we’ll know

 Dear Editor:

While stuck at home during the pandemic, I developed a bad habit. I watch the ABC evening local and national news. Conservatives like the late Rush Limbaugh have long accused the mainstream media of being biased toward the left. I often hear the ABC reporters inject editorializing comments like "outrageous," and recognizing this bias, I ignore it. But this past Monday evening, ABC crossed the line, in my opinion. They led with a story that the Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine

 Dear Editor:

Projects that will make our community more resilient to storms and more accessible to the disabled are vital, but their planning must be an inclusive process with input from all those affected. The concrete path and ramps proposed by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) must be reconsidered.

It is an outrage that The Rockaway Civic Association, Belle Harbor Property Owners Association and the Neponsit Property Owners Association were excluded from the foundational steps of

Dear Editor:

I could not miss the seventh anniversary of our peninsula’s beloved local newspaper, The Rockaway Times, without wishing you heartfelt congratulations! As you stated in 2014, “Print publications aren’t failing in small towns if they reflect the community they serve.” Together with your amazing staff, you have gone above and beyond to reflect and serve our community. Therefore, I am confident that The Rockaway Times will be here to report the news for many years to come. As a free

Dear Editor:

On July 4th, I went to the end of the boardwalk on Beach 126th St, expecting to see some simple rockets and fireworks—only to be treated to more than two hours of the most beautiful and complex fireworks coming from the beach—from clusters of people, who must have chipped in quite a bit of money to put on a display of fireworks the likes of which I've never before experienced.

In my mind it singled out that, yes, Covid has almost been vanquished—and, also, yes, we are living in a

Dear Editor:

I along with many any others enjoy your Boyleing Points and the whole paper and still recall the uphill battle you had in the early days. You have the perfect blend ... a great staff and friend support. Wishing you many, many more happy days ahead. Go and continue to do great things!

Dorothy Fraher

Dear Editor:

What are we, chopped liver?!  When will our beloved Seaside Library reopen to the public? Children, adults, students; all miss its services. This vital Queens connection should be used for more than the occasional election. All presently serving elected Democratic politicians in this Queens District: Get on board and make this happen!

I can't be the only avid reader, taxpayer and voter in the district, can I?

Maureen McNelis

Over the years my family, friends and I have all worked in the restaurant industry. I used to say everyone should have to do a semester of hospitality work to become empathetic with the workers and understand walking a mile in their shoes. Unfortunately, not everyone has taken that semester of working in the restaurant industry, so a lesson in restaurant etiquette is needed. Since I know so many people in the industry, I sent out a few texts to servers from local restaurants and this is what

Thank you so much for all of your emails this past week. Everyone seems to be on the same page with people needing beach etiquette. I just want to note these rules are for everyone, not just our visitors. I just am so sad we had such a poor weather weekend that we could not try to implement the rules. 

Here are some we ran out of room for last week:

Rule 4: PDA. Our beach is a public beach, not a private beach on a romantic getaway. You may hold hands but do not make out in the water or on

I should have had this column in last week, but I did not know it was going to be such a spectacular weekend. I usually do not go swimming this early in the year and I almost went in for a dip!

Here is my annual beach etiquette column and it is for all of our new residents and our visitors that were pouring off of the ferry this past week. One loyal reader said Kevin should place my column as one of the photos on the boardwalk, but my suggestion has been ignored! 

Rule 1: When you get to the

For those of you who read my column regularly, you know I am a high school English teacher. One of the reasons I love being an English teacher is I get paid to do what I love: teaching reading and writing and oftentimes spreading that love to my students. Being an English teacher is challenging, but there is nothing greater than when students inform you about their enjoyment for a novel or short story you just finished.

During the last month of “regular school” in 2020, my ninth grade class

Mother’s Day has a long history. According of History.com, the Greeks and Romans had festivals honoring mothers and England had celebrations during Lent to honor mothers. The American holiday can be traced back to Anna Jarvis from West Virginia, who around the time of the Civil War, started “Mother’s Day Work Clubs,” which helped mothers learn skills to raise their children. Ms. Jarvis then changed the focus of the club to “Mother’s Friendship Day,” where mothers of former Confederate and Union

During the last year, many of us have realized that the news media is sensationalized. I think we always knew that it was, but the events of the last year have really brought it out. I remember as a young elementary school student learning about yellow journalism, and I feel that has truly taken hold in our mainstream news media. Not all news publications have great covers such as “Smells Like Summer” or “April Fools: No Joke Connolly’s to Reopen!”

I have taken to Twitter quite often to see