Africa to Brooklyn rower invited to NYC Columbus Day Parade
He didn’t sail the Niña, Pinta, or Santa María. On his 4th try, Don Victor Mooney, of Kew Gardens Hills, President of H.R. 1242 Resilience Project departed from Maspalomas, Canary Islands, an archipelago located off the coast of West Africa. Twenty-one months later, he arrived at New York’s Brooklyn Bridge aboard Spirit of Malabo by rowboat.
Don Victor Mooney at Casa Museo de Colón in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, where he found great interest in Christopher Columbus navigational charts before departing for his transatlantic row (GC Media, February 2014)
Before departing, Mooney toured Casa Museo de Colón in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, where he found great interest in Christopher Columbus navigational charts. The Columbus Citizens Foundation (CCF), a longtime supporter of Mooney’s effort to row across the Atlantic Ocean, has invited him to walk in the largest celebration of Italian American heritage and culture in the United States.
“Christopher Columbus navigational charts encouraged me that the transatlantic crossing was possible”— Don Victor Mooney
H.R. 1242 Resilience Project begins distributing tennis rackets, books, and school supplies on Tuesday, which was collected during last month’s U.S. Open Tennis Championships in honor of Arthur Ashe.
Don Victor Mooney arrives at the Brooklyn Bridge culminating a 21 month row from Africa to Brooklyn for AIDS awareness (GC Media, November 2015)
Arthur Ashe was the first American U.S. Open men’s singles champion played in Forest Hills, Queens. His victories continued at Wimbledon and the Austrian Open, all first for an African American. Ashe died of complications from AIDS in 1993.
Line up at NYC Christopher Columbus Day Parade
- Date: October 11
- Time: 12:15 pm
- Where: 45th Street between 6th Ave & 5th Ave, facing EAST
