By Maureen Rossi
Today children all over the country celebrate and honor the lives of their Dads with gifts, cards and laughter. It’s a day where memories are created. However, three Smithtown families will not be creating new memories but grasping to old ones, their day is about loss and it is punctuated by sadness.
The Sipes Family, the Byrnes Family and the family of Charlie Doonan share a common bond and all three families were present Friday at the 12th Annual Smart Growth Awards. The ceremony celebrated people, projects and policies that advance Smart Growth on Long Island.
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Hosted by Vision Long Island, the Smithtown families were among over seven hundred guests that packed the Grand Ballroom of the Huntington Hilton that included over fifty elected officials from Nassau and Suffolk together with both County Executives.
Vision Long Island is a Northport non-profit that works to create economically sustainable and environmentally responsible growth. Their focus includes re-development and open space preservation. In addition they support and advocate for mixed-use communities that are transportation friendly and pedestrian friendly.
Lavena Sipes of the Courtney Sipes Foundation and Mark Mancini, President of the Smithtown Chamber of
Lavena Sipes, Mark Mancini, Smithtown Chamber of Commerce (photo LI Vision) Commerce were two of the honorees at this year’s ceremony and were recognized for their work to make downtown Smithtown more pedestrian friendly.
Vision Long Island Executive Director Eric Alexander acknowledged that our region has some of the most dangerous roads in the state; one of those roads is Route 25. Sipes took the podium and told the crowd of the day that forever altered her life. She and her daughter were crossing Main Street in Smithtown in the fall of 2009 when an S.U.V. came out of nowhere and threw 11 year old Courtney over 50 feet.
“We lost her that night,” she lamented.
An eerie silence swept the room as Sipes and Mancini told the multiple tragedies that have befallen several families on the state road. Mancini said six people lost their lives on a small section of 25 within a seven-year period.
“We started a Facebook page, started a petition and began a discussion,” said Mancini.
The two galvanized the community and had many discussions with various entities including local and state public officials. The two-lane road has since been reduced to one lane for eastbound traffic and a median has been created. In addition left turning lanes were installed and a new speed limit was implemented.
“We did improve pedestrian safety, we realized exactly what we had to do,” said Sipes.
She and Mancini said over two hundred residents came out for the critical discussion about the safety of their downtown and they listened to what people had to say.
The Courtney Sipes Foundation was founded by Courtney’s family and is committed to provide scholarships and opportunities to children with an interest in music or art and to advocate for pedestrian safety. Sipes and Mancini said they are pleased with the progress thus far but that more needs to be done.
“Ultimately, the D.O.T. took what we presented and they improved safety,” said Mancini. He thanked Vision Long Island for their tireless help and Councilmen Creighton and Wehrheim who were also in attendance. In addition, Sipes took a moment to recognize the Byrnes family who was on hand to support their movement.
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Byrnes FamilyMichelle Byrnes, a stunning beauty in her 30’s, sat quietly with her late husband’s parents, his brother John, his godson and her own mother. Quiet tears rolled down the faces of the entire Byrnes family as Sipes and Mancini spoke. Seamus Byrnes, her high school sweet heart, was one of the six fatalities Mancini spoke of. The former Afghanistan veteran and KP native survived a suicide bombing in war ravaged battlefields overseas, however, he lost his life when he stepped off the curb on Rte. 25 in February of 2011.
Byrnes, only 33 at the time, left behind a son and a daughter who are now thirteen and six. His children have little to celebrate on this Father’s day.
Kings Park resident Michelle Stein and her husband Peter came to the Awards ceremony at the request of Sipes. Michelle’s dad Charlie Doonan was a Flushing resident and retired Deputy Inspector for the N.Y.P.D. Doonan ventured to Smithtown to see a production at the Smithtown Performing Art Center on January 2, 2010.
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Charlie Doonan“He and his girlfriend were both hit by a vehicle, his girlfriend sustained a dislocated shoulder but my father had severe head injuries and lingered in a coma for seven long months,” said Stein.
It was Lavena Sipes who invited Stein to the Vision Long Island Awards ceremony; she had befriended her on Kings Park day in 2010 when they shared their tragedies with one another.
“Losing your father at my age is a natural part of life but my heart goes to the Byrnes and Sipes family,” said Stein.
Stein will spend Father’s celebrating her husband Peter’s devotion to his family. However, this is the third Father’s day without her father Charlie Doonan. She says she still can’t believe that he survived decades in some of the toughest neighborhoods in New York City as a cop only to succumb on Main Street in her very own community.
“So far I have just lent emotional support to Lavena Sipes but I am ready to put feet on the ground, more needs to be done,” she said.
Courtney’s dad Tracy Sipes was gallantly at his wife’s side for the Smart Growth Awards as he has been since the day his precious daughter left this world. Today he celebrates Father’s Day with his son 17-year old son Cameron who is about to graduate high school and head off to college in Texas. Much like the award presented to his wife, the day will bring both joy and immeasurable sadness.