Long Beach's Favorite Son Honored As Posthumous Parade Grand Marshall

LONG BEACH, NY — It's a tragic and tumultuous year for Greg LaPenna and his Long Beach family.

Ten-year-old Lazar LaPenna died after collapsing during a little league game in April. The boy died from an epileptic seizure while running out a base hit.

But the community didn't forget Lazar, or his family, during the holiday season.

The City of Long Beach and the Chamber of Commerce made Lazar a posthumous Grand Marshall for the recent Electric Light Parade.

LaPenna's number 9, his former uniform number, was held alongside a vintage firetruck at the start of the Electric Light Parade on West Beech Street. Another person displayed a framed photo "Bats out for Lazar," while the love was also felt with a heart lit up with "U."

LaPenna, last summer, filed a $10 million lawsuit against Nassau County, the Town of Hempstead and the Lido-Point Lookout Fire Department. At the heart of the claim, LaPenna alleges not enough was done to save his son's life.

Separately, LaPenna wants to ensure another family doesn't go through the same tragedy with defibrillators installed at all little league fields.

"They way something like this can be prevented," LaPenna told Patch in July. "That's my new mission in life."

Lazar was a student at East Elementary School.