Public Employee Press

Everyday Heroes
The Mayor of Marine Park

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

Some call her the mayor of Marine Park.

City Parks Worker Louise Giammarino was a youngster in Naples, Italy, when New York City accepted 150 acres of land on the western inlet of Jamaica Bay and named it Brooklyn Marine Park.

For over 25 years, the popular and dedicated public employee cared for the park and the people who use it.

"I come in early to set up the bocce courts and make sure the comfort station has toilet paper and hand towels. I keep the playground clean and safe for the children," said Giammarino.

Now retired, at 89 years old Louise Giammarino is celebrated as the oldest member of Local 1505.

Sunrise could not catch Louise Giammarino in bed. Daily she rose early to care for expansive Marine Park's flatlands, acres of trees, tracks, tennis courts and baseball fields that serve residents of communities in the farthest east reaches of Brooklyn.

With her late husband Anthony, a musician and music teacher, Louise raised three children - two daughters, who are both attorneys, and a son, who is a chief surgeon.

"My husband drove me to work every day," she said. "I love Marine Park and the people there. They know me and I know them."

Never one to shy away from hard work, Giammarino would hoist 25-pound bags on her shoulders, move heavy barrels and haul debris. "I lifted things men ran away from," she said.

Over the years, Giammarino kept Marine Park's fields pristine for dozens of little league games, football scrimmages and soccer and cricket matches.

"Louise is one of the hardest working CPWs I know," said Dilcy Benn, president of Local 1505. "She loved the park so much that her son bought her a house nearby.

"You cannot put a price on her level of dedication," Benn said. "I have never seen anything like her. She is a work dynamo and strong as an ox. She would have stayed on the job forever - we had to make her retire!

"The Parks Department needs to recognize her level of commitment to her job," Benn added. "I wish I had a million more like her."