Danielle's Birthday Celebration at CAC@SJB - An unforgettable afternoon full of memories, tears, and a lot of love

Members of Danielle's family including her brother, Rashid (left), sister Monique (center),

and her mother (right) at the Center during Danielle's Birthday Celebration

A week ago on Saturday, Oct. 4th, a special gathering of friends, family, and colleagues met at the Center for the Arts & Culture @SJB to celebrate the life of one unique and very special young woman in all our lives, Danielle Locario, who returned home to the Lord late last month. It was an emotional afternoon for all who attended the special occassion.. but the spirit in the center was joyous, loving, uplifting, and simply blessed.

Artist, Jay Gonzalez, works on the portrait dedicated to Danielle during the week

before Dani's Birthday Celebration at the Center

Danielle's brother, William Jr., and father, William Sr., blessed the occassion and

posed in front the completed portrait of Danielle created by artist, Jay Gonzalez

The Center's walls were beautifully adorned with Danielle's favorite artwork and paintings from the Center, while her favorite songs played in the background throughout the afternoon. Family members, friends, co-workers, and fellow volunteers from Bedford Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps (where Danielle served as a Deputy Chief and volunteer EMT), took turns sharing their feelings and memories of Danielle, and the great outpouring of love was moving and very inspiring. Individual after individual stepped up to the open-mic and made us laugh and cry as everyone just embraced our memories of Danielle, and we found great comfort and support in celebrating her life together, and the great impact Dani made in each of ours.

Danielle's family, friends, and co-workers packed the

Center for Dani's Birthday Celebration

Our great friend and extraordinary poet, Malik Canty,

blessed us all with his deep poetry

Other special guests who knew Danielle came to share poetry, sing songs, and we were all treated to a very special dance from the wonderful teen dance group, What You See Is What You Get, from St. John's parish, that was choreographed by Ms. Aloha Peartree and dedicated to Danielle.

Aloha Peartree shares memories and introduces her community teen dance group

St. John's community teen dance group, What You See Is What You Get,

dance for Danielle (part 1)

What You See Is What You Get.. dance for Danielle (part 2)

As you can see, this celebration of Danielle's life in honor of her 25th birthday was an afternoon that touched our hearts and had us all praising the Lord for blessing us with the gift of Danielle during her time on this earth. The following videos are short clips of individual testimonies in memory of Danielle from her birthday celebration at the Center that we invite all of Dani's family, friends, and guests of the Center's blog to view and take into your heart. We hope these testimonies and memories of Danielle touch your heart as they have ours.. and help bring some peace and healing from the sorrow we all feel in Danielle's passing through celebrating her life. In that way, we know she is always going to be with us.. in our hearts.. forever.

One of Dani's neighbors reflects on her life

Sharing feelings and memories of Danielle on the open-mic

"Mr. B" Luis Bernard shares some of his feelings and memories of Danielle

Daughter of Charity and friend, Sr. Anne Marie, shares her feelings (part 1)

Daughter of Charity and friend, Sr. Anne Marie, shares her feelings (part 2)

Dani's closest friend and sister, Denise Springer, shares some of her feelings

Close friend, Vaden Culpepper, poignantly shares his heart and feelings

at Dani's birthday celebration

Close friend and CAC@SJB Director, Glenn Angel Echevarria, sings U Are An Angel for Danielle

We greatly thank Danielle's family and friends for all their love, support, and assistance in making this special occassion an unforgettable and healing one for all of us at the Center. We must also acknowledge St. John's parish for allowing us the space and opporttunity to celebrate her life with dignity and respect for all she did to make a difference in all our lives, and in the Bed-Stuy community and parish she loved at St. John the Baptist.

Sr. Anne Marie helps lead the closing prayer at Dani's birthday celebration

We hope you enjoyed this post and encourage you to share some of your comments with us by clicking on the "Comments" link at the bottom right of this post. Any more feelings and memories of Danielle are greatly welcome. We will share all of these memories and comments on this post as we recieve them.

Thank you.. be blessed.. and see you at the Center again for our next activities and special events!