6th Annual Huntington Awareness Day Kicks off Saturday

Pictured: Insp. Edward Brady, Officer Mark Collins, Sophie Sarro, Frank LaBarbara, the Harris family

Thousands of people are expected to turn out for the sixth annual Huntington Awareness Day parade to celebrate the community’s unity, diversity, solidarity and a few special honorees on Saturday.

Bands, floats, vintage cars, service groups and local merchants will come together to march down New York Avenue through Huntington Station from West Hills Road to the municipal parking lot between Railroad and Church Streets.

The Awareness Day fair, held in the parking lot, will include performances by local artists and booths offering crafts and services.

The parade will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Honors will be bestowed upon three members of the community: a police officer wounded in the line of duty, a 101-year-old wartime aircraft worker, a volunteer chaplain at the VA medical center and two families with longtime contributions to the community.

“Every year, we celebrate the progress we have made as a community and single out some of the many worthy residents who have helped us get to where we are,” Supervisor Frank P. Petrone said in a statement. “This year’s honorees touch a broad range of areas, from running successful businesses to volunteering to help others to working to keep us all safe.”

Honorees include:

• Insp. Edward Brady. He retired last month after serving almost six years as commanding officer of the Huntington area. Insp. Brady’s Suffolk County Police Department police career spanned 36 years, 14 of which were spent in various Second Precinct assignments.
• Officer Mark Collins. In March, Collins, a 12-year veteran of the force, was shot in the neck and hip a while chasing a suspected gang member who had fled after a traffic stop in Huntington Station. The suspect accused of shooting Collins is awaiting trial. He has recovered from his injuries. Collins was named Second Precinct officer of the year in 2008 and previously received a medal for helping save a man’s life during a house fire.
• Sophie Sarro. She is a 101-year-old Huntington Station native who trained as a seamstress during World War II to help manufacture airplanes for Grumman Aircraft. She later worked in the machine shop at Republic Aviation, where she met her husband, Sal. A mother and grandmother, she is still active in Town senior clubs and in sewing robes and other items she donates to charitable organizations.
• Frank LaBarbara. He is a Korean War veteran and retired owner of an engineering and manufacturing company. LaBarbara has volunteered for many years as a Eucharistic minister at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Northport. He has also co-chaired the employment network program at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs church for more than 20 years.
• The Harris family, whose patriarch, Rufus Harris, an accomplished mechanic, overcame segregation in South Carolina, moved to Huntington and founded an automobile repair shop, Rufus & Sons. His business was one of the first African-American owned businesses in Huntington. The shop included two generations of the Harris family and was in business for 40 years.
• The Sorrentino family. This family has been fixtures on the Huntington business scene for many years. Andrea Sorrentino has operated a shoe repair shop in Huntington village for 35 years. His sons, Pasquale and Andre, own an auto body shop. The have been active in civic and charitable affairs, as well as in the Huntington Fire Department, where Andre Sorrentino is a commissioner. For each of the past five Thanksgivings, the family has given away 300 turkeys to needy families.

“We work hard all year to make the community better, and it’s important to step back once a year and celebrate what we have done,” said District president Keith Barrett.

Images via Town of Huntington