Mothers and other visitors to Jerome Garden Plaza enjoyed an afternoon of free music and giveaways on Saturday, May 13, as the Jerome Gun Hill Business Improvement District (BID) held its annual Mothers’ Day celebration. Held inside plaza, located at East Mosholu Parkway North and Jerome Avenue in Norwood, the free event featured a live band, a sketch artist, and giveaways.

Daniela Beasley, executive director of the BID, said, “This event is part of a spring event series that’s funded by the New York City Small Business Services. They gave the BID a small BID grant and so we’re using those funds to bring people out to the neighborhood and show them that we’re doing work to make the neighborhood a better place.”

Queens-based band The Afro-Latineers performed their unique style of “Jazz with a touch of Salsa” on the day. The band said they performed at the BID-sponsored Fall Festival on Jerome Avenue in the past. The event also featured character artist Mike Logsdon of Draw My Party Illustration, who was on hand to sketch anyone for free. Beasley said Logsdon has also worked with the BID in the past, adding, “He loves giving out free drawings to the kids.”

After dancing to a few numbers by The Afro-Latineers, Steven Patino of Kingsbridge told us he’s an intern at the Bronx Oncology Living Daily (BOLD) unit at Montefiore Hospital, working with cancer patients and had learned of the event and decided to come along. “They were like, ‘If you’re interested and would like to come dance with a band performing live music..’ and I was like, ‘I’d love too.’”

We asked his dance partner, Eunice Nazar how she liked the performance by The Afro-Latineers. She replied, “The band is great, very lively!” Nazar added, “I feel great supporting a local event and community solidarity. It’s great to be here and feel the music and people and get resources.”

Lastly, as part of the Mothers’ Day festivities, SB Nutrition, located at 336 East Gun Hill Road, handed out free surprises to anyone who filled out a brief BID survey, asking what improvements and what type of stores they would like to see in the area in the future. Manning a table of free cupcakes with pretzels on top was Asha Finch, owner of the business, who said her cupcakes with pretzels are under 250 calories.

Finch and her husband Mitch opened their shop one year ago. Finch said, “We saved up, we opened a business on Gun Hill, and we want to bring this to the community. SB Nutrition offers nutrition, Salsa and Zumba classes, self-defense classes, and sells prepared meals that are under 250 calories. Finch said she was grateful to the BID, adding, “They have helped the business get out in the community with similar events.” She said she hopes to attend similar events in the future.

Jerome Gun Hill BID is hosting a Juice & Paint event on June 20 at 336 East Gun Hill Road. Follow the BID on Instagram @jeromegunhillbid for details of more events.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.