The former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch and two associates have been charged with sex trafficking and interstate prostitution.

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Wyckoff Heights Medical Center honored several outstanding medical workers and raised funds for a new Cardiac Rehabilitation Center during the hospital’s 66th annual gala held at Russo’s on the Bay in Queens on Friday, Oct. 18.

Honorees at the gala included Dr. Parvez A. Mir, MD, FACP, FCCP, Dr. Mounzer Tchelebi, MD and the frontline team and leaders at the emergency department.

Mir, who initially began working at Wyckoff in 1989 as a resident in Internal Medicine, was honored for his many years of dedicated service at the hospital. After completing a Fellowship at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care, Mir attained Board Certification in that field. He later returned to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in 1993 as an Attending in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care. In 1998, he became the Associate Director of Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care. Since 2011, Mir has served as the Director of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.

“I trained at Wyckoff and stayed at Wyckoff. I’ve been at Wyckoff for more than 20 years. I’ve had the privilege of taking care of patients from the community,” Mir said. “I feel the satisfaction of giving back to the community. It’s been a privilege to have been at Wyckoff for so long.”

Tchelebi has been a pillar for Wyckoff, having served there for 33 years across various roles, including his current position as an executive board member of the Board of Trustees. He is extremely committed to Wyckoff’s mission of serving the community that depends upon them for vital healthcare services.

Throughout his decades of service at Wyckoff, Tchelebi’s roles have included Chief Medical Officer, Chairman of Radiation Oncology and the sole physician executive Board of Trustee member. In every position he has served, Tchelebi has brought with him a knowledgeable, positive and quiet charisma.

Between the life-changing oncological services he has provided for the community and the medical perspective and clinical sensitivity he has brought to the Board of Trustees, Tchelebi has been a huge asset for Wyckoff, embodying the best of the Medical Center. He provides a sense of calmness in the face of a crisis, having experienced, endured and survived the challenges of a safety-net hospital and gaining satisfaction and fulfillment in serving those in need.

The Emergency Department team helped provide care for the community during the COVID-19 pandemic. While most of the world shut down then, they rose to the occasion during a time of so much fear and uncertainty. Emergency Department leaders Lisandro Irizarry, MD, Monica Persaud, RN, Eric Cardamone, and Paul Chervoni made sure each patient entering the department got the highest quality of healthcare.

“I am honored to receive this [award], but it belongs to many and not just me alone,” Persaud said. “My team and my boss are my backbone. My team stood behind me no matter what happened. I couldn’t have done it without them.”

“The event tonight is to serve as a fundraiser for very a essential heart and cardiovascular service: cardiac rehab,” Wyckoff President and CEO Ramon Rodriguez said. “In our study and research, we found that patients who had a cardiac event or had a stroke who were in need of rehabilitation were finding it hard to find that rehabilitation because they can only go into Manhattan. So our board our leadership of the cardiovascular department felt strongly that we needed to find a way to provide that in the hospital so that people wouldn’t have to travel that far. We’re very fortunate the community and all the friends of Wyckoff have come together. We were looking to raise $500,000, and the last count is $900,040. We’re happy about this. It’s going to do a lot of good things for us.”

The funds raised will go towards specialized equipment, space renovation, educational programs and staff training. This will all help to significantly enhance the outcomes and quality of life for many Wyckoff patients.

“Our board and our executive team have a vision that our hospital should add services,” said Wyckoff Chairman of the Board Gary Goffner. “In Brooklyn, it’s very hard to find cardiac rehab. If you have heart disease, you’re able to rehab in a program with physicians and professionals. That is what we created. We’re continuing along the path of increasing services in our community. We’re honoring the workers who, during COVID, put themselves on the line.”

This new Cardiac Rehabilitation Center at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center would provide patients dealing with cardiovascular diseases access to supervised exercise, education and lifestyle modifications. This will help to reduce the risk of cardiac events recurring, as well as decreasing the costs of long-term healthcare.

Loafers, a gay bar set to open in Carroll Gardens on Oct. 23, takes its name from a midcentury insult lodged against gay men: “light in the loafers.” 

The bar has flipped the phrase on its head, celebrating local queer history and communities with a cozy vintage vibe and open arms.

When owner Brendan Donohoe moved to Brooklyn from Dublin five years ago, he was taken with the borough’s oft-hidden queer history. In first half of the 20th century, gay artists and visitors found safety and community in Coney Island; sailors and queer women took on jobs and relationships at shipyards in Red Hook and the Brooklyn Navy Yard; Brooklyn Heights became a hotspot of gay bars, artists’ communes, and cruising on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. 

But after World War II, attitudes changed and became more hostile. The thriving gay community in Brooklyn was quieted, the history unacknowledged. 

“That kind of brought me to say, let’s get a gay bar that has a nod to the 1940s, that is kind of vibrant, comfortable, a little bit intimate … and a nod to a period of time before McCarthyism in the late 50s, that it kind of was a little bit more footloose and free to be queer,” Donohoe said.  

He and the small Loafers team found a “beautiful” space with large glass windows at 517 Court St., on the corner of 9th Street. The bar has been decked out in vintage splendor: the walls are painted a dark green, with a mural showing couples dancing and embracing behind the bar. The furniture and barstools are velvet, and pink vintage-inspired lampshades by Ace of Shades cover the hanging lights over the wooden bar. 

Donohoe brought the history he was so inspired by right into the bar, too. With the help of some local historians, he got some archival black-and-white photographs to hang on the walls: pictures of a couple posing on the beach, men in suits sharing a kiss, and a group of women dressed in coveralls and hardhats. 

The decor is intended to bring people back to the time period Loafers is inspired by, Donohoe said, and to serve as a conversation starter for people settling in with a date. 

“Attention to detail is important,” he said. 

Donohoe, a partner at Ginger’s Bar and Mary’s Bar Brooklyn, wanted Loafers to offer something different from some other gay bars in the borough. 

“There’s not that many gay bars that are just intimate spaces for you to go on a first date with someone, or bring the parents of your partner,” he said. “But there’s a lot of them when it comes to the heteronormative world … we don’t have many gay spaces that are a different kind of vibrancy other than a dive bar or a club.” 

As for the cocktails, they’ve kept it simple. Donohoe said — a fairly extensive wine list and “classic cocktails” inspired by the 40s. 

A classic Negroni, for example, has been replaced by a white Negroni, swapping out Campari and vermouth for lighter ingredients, while the gin and tonic is crafted with tonic syrup. Some drinks push the boundaries even further, like a spicy pepperoncini martini or a strawberry tequila mocktail.

Cremini’s restaurant across the street will provide snacks like sandwiches, meats and cheeses — not enough for dinner, but enough to accompany a few drinks.

Loafers will host live music every Friday with a DJ instructed to stay close to jazz and swing influences to maintain the 1940s element — plus karaoke with a piano player and a vocalist every Thursday. Events will grow and change as the bar settles in, Donohoe said. 

After a successful soft opening last week, Loafers will celebrate its grand opening on Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. After that, the bar will open at 5 p.m. each night, seven nights a week. 

“We hope that people come find us, and feel that we’ve really added to the neighborhood, that we’re doing something unique,” Donohoe said. “And that they come conscientious that it is a queer space, and we have a code of conduct, and there’s an expectation that you walk in here, you’ll be on good behavior, because if you don’t, we’ll be asking you to leave.”