Sandy Relief from Ossining PBA Includes a BBQ

The Ossining village Police Benevolent Association recently hauled a trailer to the beach full of the fixings for an outdoor barbecue.

Now, the caravan also included SUVs filled with food items, cleaning materials, construction equipment, toys, clothes and pet food, pointed out Chief Joe Burton—because the group traveled to Queens, to a neighborhood ravaged by Hurricane Sandy. 

The PBA had been on a relief trip to Staten Island the week before. But they decided to do it again with that BBQ twist after Burton's daughter told him of visiting a family she knew from work and hearing one wistfully wish for a hamburger. 

That comment "set the light off and the gears in motion," Burton told the Ossining village Trustees later. 

So on Nov. 17 the caravan set off for Rockaway Beach. They set up the BBQ with grills, hamburgers, hot dogs, cheese, chili, chips, soda and water at 11:30 a.m. By 2:30 p.m. they had handed out close to 500 hamburgers and more than 400 hot dogs to residents, construction workers, sanitation crews, traffic and police officers—

"Anyone else in the area that needed something to eat, including Academy Award winning actor Jon Voight," Burton said.