You are reading

Local Priest Named ‘Sunnysider of the Year’

Father Brian Dowd (Photo by Manny Gomez)

Oct. 10, 2012 By Bill Parry

The Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce is awarding this year’s Luke Adams Sunnysider of the Year award to Father Brian Dowd, Pastor of Queen of Angels Catholic Church.

The Chamber selects one person each year for the award—which is named after Luke Adams, in recognition of Adams’ life-long dedication to Sunnyside.

To win the award, the recipient must illustrate exceptional community service without regard to politics, fundraising or faith.

“Father Dowd brings people of all faiths to his church,” said Luke Adams. “When others just see a parish he sees a whole community.”

Adams said he was impressed by Father Dowd’s embrace of the neighborhood art scene. “He opened the doors of his Church to the Sunnysideartists.org Art Fair, [where]over a thousand people came this past year,” Adams said.

Dowd has been a priest for 21 years and has been the pastor at Queen of Angels (44-04 Skillman Ave.) for the last 3 1/2  years.

“It’s a great honor to be recognized by the community,” Father Dowd said. “It’s something I greatly appreciate.”

“We’ve developed programs for senior citizens as well as the youth,” Father Dowd said. “You can see the increases in parishioners every Sunday.”

The ceremony will be held at 6:00pm, Oct. 29, at Dazies Restaurant, at 39-41 Queens Blvd.

Tickets to the event are $50 and are available by calling Frances Schmidt at (718) 786-0322 and Luke Adams at (718) 784-8437

email the author: news@queenspost.com

19 Comments

Click for Comments 
Frank Ennis

Nice to see the community recognizing a true leader and a devoted worker of The Lord’s vision! As always with Brian, I’m sure there is more to come.

Reply
86Mets

Any Catholic who votes for the abortion/infanticide-loving obama should be excommunicated. I haven’t heard many of Father Dowd’s homilies but I hope and pray that he is opposed to the wanton slaughter of the unborn.

Reply
Arthanius

Fr. Brian is getting the Sunnysider Award because he’s the man. A man of great honor, dedication, and love for any who is in need. He has managed to bring so many people together – there is still more to him that have yet to see. God bless Fr. Brian, for inspiring so many people to serve the poor and the needy!

Reply
Ich bin ein Sunnysider

O’shea, I don’t blame the site owner for deleting your comment, it was totally inappropriate. You have a right to express your opinion but nobody is obliged to provide you with a forum for it.

Reply
86Mets

@It’s all true

0bama’s record on abortion would make King Herod blush. He’s not only ok with killing the unborn in the womb, it’s ok to let them die of even when they survive an abortion. His voting record supports infanticide.

Reply
Sofia Geier

Thanks for providing a home-base to Unity Stage Company, Father Dowd — and for being so kind and welcoming to our programs. It means so much to the children and their families.

Reply
Irving Douglas Estella

Congratulations to Fr. Dowd! A well-deserved honor!

[Rev.] Irving Douglas Estella
Former Pastor of Sunnyside Reformed Church

Reply

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Crunching the Queens crime numbers: grand larcenies down across borough, rapes halved in the north, robberies decrease in the south

Apr. 17, 2024 By Ethan Marshall

The number of grand larcenies across Queens was down during the 28-day period from March 18 to April 14, compared to the same period of time last year, according to the latest crime stats released by the NYPD Monday. At the same time, rapes and robberies decreased significantly in northern and southern Queens, respectively.