Montefiore Medical Center presented a $20,000 donation to the American Red Cross in Greater New York at their White Plains office last month, the first in a continuing fund-raising effort by Montefiore associates to aid relief activities in Haiti following the catastrophic earthquake on Jan. 12.

As if our community hasn’t suffered enough from fire in recent months, the suspicious blaze at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church at University Avenue and Fordham?Road further alarmed residents already shell-shocked from the two horrific blazes in the merchant district of Bainbridge Avenue and East 204th Street.

Luckily, the destruction was limited to the church’s large vestibule, and the pastor, Father Joseph Girone, says he expects services to resume in the magnificent sanctuary by Easter.

Still, people are rightly worried that the fire was deliberately set and the Fire Department has deemed the Tolentine fire "very suspicious."

This comes on top of the arrest of an alleged arsonist responsible for the December fire on East 204th Street.

And residents are anxiously awaiting news on what (or who) was responsible for the Halloween blaze that destroyed 10 stores on Bainbridge Avenue just up the block from 204th Street. The Fire Department has yet to issue any findings on its investigation.

As a child, I always heard my mother call herself the lioness and her children were her cubs. I am now a parent and see myself in the same light as she did. So now, as a parent leader of the Education Committee of the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition (NWBCCC), I fight for my children’s right to the best education and for the rights of kids in my community. School District 10 is the third most overcrowded district in New York City. The recent report from the city comptroller, "Underprepared for Overcrowding," lets us know just how much we need new schools – Bronx primary schools are 112 percent over-capacity. Yet 1,703 seats were slashed from the previous capital plan, and the current plans to build new schools fall short of the number of seats needed.

Alba Vazquez immigrated to America in 1977 from her native Uruguay, where a military dictatorship had seized power a few years prior. She settled in the Bronx with the hopes of building a safer, more prosperous life for herself and her young family.

On Monday, she spoke in support of bill which would guarantee decent wages and benefits to cleaners, security guards, and other building service workers at new commercial and residential developments financed by city tax-dollars, and at buildings the city leases from others.

At 11 years old, Mariela Cipriano, a sixth grader at PS 246 in Kingsbridge, has already established herself as one of the premier track stars in all of New York City.

A flood of outraged residents and elected officials lined up to voice their concerns to MTA board members last night at a public hearing at the Paradise Theater on the Grand Concourse. The transit agency has proposed drastic service cuts and fare changes to cover its nearly $400 million budget shortfall.

A listing of arts, entertainment and recreational activities for all our readers in the Bronx and beyond.

Sonia Lappin looks out over Harris Field from her Bedford Park apartment building and sees a glorious past – a community space used by generations of local families for everything from ball games to picnics – and an uncertain future.

Because of lead contamination, Lappin and others wonder how long the next generation will have to wait before the fields will be ready and safe for use after lead soil contamination was discovered at Harris in 2009.

A total of five pedestrians were killed on Gun Hill Road in 2006 and 2007. Because of this cluster of deaths and a total of 57 serious accidents between 2006 and 2008, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign (TSTC) named Gun Hill the most dangerous street in the Bronx in recently released study.