Sliwa Slams DOE on First Day of School, Vows Overhaul

Queens GOP Leaders Warn of Failing Schools, Rising Costs

By MOHAMED FARGHALY

mfarghaly@queensledger.com

Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa marked the first day of school by blasting the city’s Department of Education as bloated, mismanaged, and failing students, vowing to overhaul the system if elected.

Sliwa, joined on Sept 4 outside PS/IS 128 in Middle Village by City Council Member Robert Holden, council candidate Alicia Vaichunas, and Queens GOP Chair Tony Nunziato, laid out his education plan while pointing to what he called chronic failures inside the DOE.

“By fourth grade, two thirds of the students cannot read, write or do math at grade level,” Sliwa said. “And yet we keep pouring more and more money into a dysfunctional system with 13 deputy chancellors, 50 department heads. Teachers are still reaching into their pockets and having to buy day to day supplies for the children with a budget of $41 billion.”

Holden, who is term-limited after two terms on the Council, described systemic failures ranging from special education to attendance. “We have problems with special needs kids. Alicia, my Deputy Chief of Staff, has been dealing with this year in, year out and it continues. But the bigger issue is with DOE and the standards that each year seem to be dropping,” Holden said.

He criticized what he called a culture of automatic promotion. “Years ago, we used to have kids that were left back. Remember that? Well, that doesn’t happen anymore. People get promoted. The students get promoted automatically, if you happen to not even show up,” Holden said. He pointed to past grade-fixing scandals and principals who, despite misconduct, “still [collect] full salary… wasting taxpayers’ money.”

Discipline policies also came under fire. Sliwa criticized the city’s reliance on restorative justice, arguing it fails to hold disruptive or violent students accountable. He said past policies allowed for suspensions, expulsions, or transfers to alternative schools, but now students who assault teachers or classmates are simply sent to counseling sessions and then returned to class. Sliwa called this unfair to victims and dangerous for teachers, saying it only puts troublemakers back into the same classrooms they disrupted. He pledged to use mayoral control to restore stronger disciplinary measures and remove violent students to protect both teachers and other children. “If I assault a teacher, I am not subject to arrest… All it does is restore the troublemakers into the classroom,” he said, pledging that under his leadership, mayoral control of the DOE would mean a return to suspensions, expulsions, and transfers for violent students.”

Vaichunas, who is running to succeed Holden in the Council, said her phone had been ringing with parent complaints even as students returned for the first day. “People have been saying my children don’t even have a teacher in the classroom. Where’s the money going? The money’s there for the teachers. Why aren’t we hiring more?” she said. “Children that do hit a teacher or have a fight with a student, they’re not the ones removed… So things need to change. And I promise, if I’m elected, and when I’m elected, I will definitely make changes.”

Sliwa recalled his own experience in Brooklyn public schools, where campuses stayed open after hours for arts, music, sports, and English classes for immigrants, giving students safe, constructive outlets and teachers extra income. He argued that schools should once again serve as round-the-clock community hubs, open on evenings and weekends to keep kids engaged and out of harm’s way while also offering cultural and educational opportunities. Sliwa said that as mayor he would push to revive these programs, criticizing the current practice of closing school facilities after 5 p.m. and on weekends.

“The schools should be used round the clock as much as possible for the pursuit of keeping children out of harm’s way.”

Nunziato, who also heads the Juniper Park Civic Association, framed the issue as a choice between investing in schools or fueling future incarceration. “The next step from $42,000 a year for school is $72,000 a year for jail. And that’s what we don’t want to see,” he said. “We want these children to come out of our schools, proud, educated, and not into gang related or destructive of our neighborhoods.”

Sliwa said he would rely on Holden’s 40 years of teaching experience and on parents like Vaichunas to shape his plan, while promising to trim bureaucracy and keep schools open to the community.

“There’s a lot of work to be done,” Sliwa said. “It seems to be taking more money out of our pockets for education, but providing little in return.”

Maspeth Honors 9/11 Victims in Annual Memorial

Community Remembers Local Heroes Lost on 9/11

By MOHAMED FARGHALY

mfarghaly@queensledger.com

The Maspeth community gathered on Sept 6 at Maspeth Memorial Park to honor residents and first responders lost in the September 11, 2001, attacks, including members of FDNY Squad 288 and Hazmat 1, as well as those who later died from 9/11-related illnesses.

The annual ceremony, hosted by Maspeth Federal Savings and Kenneth Rudzewick, included prayers, musical performances, and the reading of victims’ names. FDNY EMT Hilda Vannata of Battalion 14 was specifically remembered this year. Kathleen Nealon sang the national anthem, and Liz and Bill Huisman performed “I Will Remember You.” Community members and first responders placed small American flags at the monument as each name was read.

Congresswoman Grace Meng highlighted the ongoing support for victims and first responders. “We recommit ourselves to the solemn responsibility of remembrance, not only through words but through action. We must ensure those impacted by the 9/11 attacks get the resources, benefits, and justice they deserve. Locally, we’re in the final steps of securing $2 million for the firehouse that lost more firefighters than anywhere else in the city,” she said.

Councilman Robert Holden recalled the attacks and the courage of first responders. “When the second plane hit, we knew we were under attack. Maspeth is America, and this is sacred ground. We must remember the brave firefighters who perished here, and it’s important that we landmark this firehouse for future generations,” he said.

Assembly Member Steven Raga emphasized the duty to remember. “It’s not just the history of Maspeth or Queens—it’s the history of New York and our country. We have a responsibility to honor those we lost and ensure future generations understand their sacrifice,” he said.

The ceremony concluded with a prayer by Rev. Msgr. Joseph Calise, invoking the words of Saint Francis: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace… It is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

St. Francis of Assisi School Celebrates 75 Years with Student Parade

Students March Into 75th Year at St. Francis Academy

By MOHAMED FARGHALY

mfarghaly@queensledger.com

Located in a pocket of Astoria we like to call ‘Upper Ditmars,’ a Catholic Elementary School is celebrating 75 years this school season. St. Francis of Assisi, located on 21 Avenue at 46th Street, is planning a school year the celebrate the success with Bishop Brennan and the entire parish, touting events throughout the year. In a time when it seems Catholic Schools are finding it more and more difficult to survive, this school seems to be thriving.

With 325 students, its principal, Elizabeth Reilly says it’s about alumni and current families who get involved in their children’s education from early on. “The community knows about us and they tell their neighbors. Our families see the school as a clear choice for their student.

While principal Reilly says that almost half of her students go on the Msgr. McClancy High School in East Elmhurst, there are a smattering of students who attend Molloy, Mary Louis and even Regis.

Gathering in the school parking lot, students marched into the building along a closed street, led by their teachers and accompanied by lively music from  Paul Effman Music Education, while parents looked on with admiration. Principal Elizabeth Reilly, now in her third year at St. Francis, said the event was meant to honor the school’s long history while giving students a chance to settle into the new school year.

“We wanted to recreate the first day of school ever by having the students march in through the doors,” Reilly said. “We took a lot of time to prepare the building, got the banners and balloon arch, and cleaned the building so that it really looks brand new, like it did 75 years ago.”

Founded on Feb. 13, 1951, St. Francis of Assisi School opened under the guidance of Pastor Monsignor Joseph Schaeffner, Principal Sr. Mary Diana, and the Sisters of St. Dominic. Within a few years, the school had a full building of students and a wide range of spiritual, academic, and extracurricular programs, including its award-winning Fife and Drums Corps. Over the next 38 years, six Dominican principals led the school, maintaining its reputation for excellence.

In 1989, Mrs. Barbara McArdle became the first lay principal, navigating challenges such as declining enrollment and a shortage of teaching sisters. Under her leadership, new programs including Toddler Time, Preschool, and a UPK program helped boost enrollment. The school also expanded its technology offerings, renovated its library, built a science lab, and enhanced health and safety measures.

Since then, St. Francis has continued to evolve, integrating technology in the classroom, extending early childhood programs, and adding initiatives like the Yale-approved Emotional Literacy Program and small-group instruction. In 2017, the school transitioned to St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy, now offering DOE-sponsored PreK and 3K programs and maintaining accreditation from Cognia.

“St. Francis Catholic Academy represents more than just education to me as it has been a cornerstone in my life connecting generations, my sons now walk the same halls where my father did as a child. This shared experience embodies the deep sense of community that makes our neighborhood school not just a place of learning, but a cornerstone of family legacy and local tradition,” said Steven Simicich, Parent Board Member.

With a tuition just under $7,000 a year, parents like Simicich say that the investment is well worth it. “My father went to St Francis, I went there and so does my son. The reason the school succeeds in graduating top students and good kids is that it lives by its mission and motto … Faith, Service and Excellence. They care.”

Reilly said the school continues to thrive because of its focus on quality education and individualized attention. “We are one of the few Catholic schools growing in enrollment,” she said. “We provide quality education, before- and after-school programs, and students leave happy.”

Reilly also highlighted the school’s “buddy day” program, where prospective students spend a day with a current St. Francis student to experience life at the academy firsthand and help them decide if it’s the right fit.

The 75th-anniversary celebration is set to continue throughout the school year, culminating in a social gathering for parishioners and families next June. Special features will include reflections from students about their experiences and a dedicated portion of the school’s Christmas show.

 

 

Queens Teens Shine as NYJTL Ball Crew at US Open

Young New Yorkers Gain Front-Row Experience at US Open

By MOHAMED FARGHALY

mfarghaly@queensledger.com

For more than 50 years, the New York Junior Tennis & Learning (NYJTL) organization has been introducing young people across the city to tennis while promoting education and personal growth. This year, a dozen of its participants got to experience the excitement of one of the sport’s biggest stages: the U.S. Open.

Founded in 1971 by tennis legend Arthur Ashe and Lewis “Skip” Hartman, NYJTL has grown into the nation’s largest youth tennis and education nonprofit, reaching more than 90,000 children annually through afterschool programs, community tennis initiatives, and teacher training across all five boroughs.

Udai Tambar, CEO and president of NYJTL, highlighted the program’s long-standing reach. “We’ve been around for over 50 years. Founded by Arthur Ashe. We reach about 90,000 young people annually. We have served young people about 100 unique sites throughout the city. We’ve had about a dozen or so kids in our program who are part of the ball crew. And it’s exciting, you know, the other day as sort of watching a quarter final match with center, and it was the number one seed and there was someone in our program who was a ball on part of the ball crew. So, I think it’s exciting for the kids who play tennis to be on court, like, literally, on court with these amazing players who they look up to.”

Tambar also emphasized the broader impact of NYJTL’s programs. “We believe in creating success for young people on and off the court. We mean that we want our young people not only to do well playing tennis, we want them to do well in school as well. So, we take pride in the fact that our young people graduate from high school, go to college. We’re able to connect them with scholarships, financial aid, some player, some people, will play at a college level. We have students in elementary, middle school who are getting into competitive programs like prep for Prep, some of the specialized high school, high schools as well. And so, for us, that’s the legacy of Arthur Ashe that, you know, that’s been consistent, that we’re creating success on and off the court, and both is very important.”

Among the participant’s representing Queens was 16-year-old Kento Smith from Briarwood, who has been playing tennis for 11 years. “I have been playing tennis for 11 years, mainly with the NYJTL community tennis program, and for my latest years, the Scholar Athlete Program (SAP). I love tennis because I am able to construct points and problem solves with techniques that I have developed throughout my years of training. I have always enjoyed problem solving, so tennis is the perfect sport,” Smith said.

Smith, a returning member of the ball crew, described the tryouts and training as rigorous and focused on skill and teamwork. “Tryouts for the US Open were a mix of many components. These include agility, awareness, technical abilities such as rolling and catching, and the ability to work as a team. In order to do well, you always have to be present and focus on what is going on now; not what you did a point before, and not what you are going to do a point later,” he said.

He added that the experience fostered a strong sense of community. “I returned because I love the sense of community here, and I genuinely believe that this is a great community to be a part of. The connections I make here are ones that I plan to carry on throughout my life… Now for a more personal experience than team wise, this year I had the honor to be a ball person on Arthur Ashe Stadium multiple times, and it shocked me how different the atmosphere was. The roars from the crowd, and the echoing songs in between change overs made my heart race; both from nervousness and excitement. Being on this stadium was an amazing experience, and an absolute honor.”

Smith said his favorite players currently include Alcaraz and Sinner, noting his personal experience on court. “I was able to be a ball person for Alcaraz during his quarterfinal match against Lehecka, and seeing one of my idols right in front of me was an unexplainable feeling. I felt proud that I was able to be a ball person for someone who I have admired for a long time.”

NYJTL, the nation’s largest youth tennis and education nonprofit, continues to offer afterschool programs, community tennis, teacher training, and college pathway initiatives, aiming to make tennis accessible and teach life skills like perseverance, resilience, and problem-solving along the way. You can learn more by visiting nyjtl.org.

Ridgewood Community Garden at the Center of Free Speech Legal Battle

Facing eviction from a beloved community garden after a neighbor complained about its values statement, gardeners have accused the City of discriminatory enforcement

COLE SINANIAN

It’s 10am on a bright and breezy late-summer Sunday, harvest season at Jardin de Santa Cecilia Gentili, a community garden in Ridgewood, Queens. Originally named “Sunset Community Garden” due to the view atop its gently sloping hillside, from which the towers of Midtown can be seen bathed in gold at sunset, the garden is already buzzing. Stewards shovel compost and pick cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, purple basil, and other crops available to all members of the community. 

“Everyone is welcome here,” says Indalesio Tellez, one of the garden’s few dozen members. “We’ve just started harvesting,” Tellez calls in Spanish to a pair of women passersby pushing strollers. “You’re welcome to come by anytime to pick up some food!” A toddler with a dripping nose, accompanied by a young man wearing a gold Star of David around his neck, reaches giddily for a watering can that’s nearly his size. 

Many of the garden’s members hail from Ridgewood’s immigrant, trans and queer communities, and view it as a safe space in a world that’s often hostile to marginalized groups, says Tellez, whose family is from Mexico. 

Still, the garden is, first and foremost, a garden. A highly productive one. Piper Werle, who’s been a garden steward for the past year, doesn’t do much shopping for produce anymore. She’s proud to admit that most of her fruits and vegetables come from the garden, planted by either herself or one of her neighbors. In the past year, gardeners have processed nearly 7,000 pounds of kitchen scraps into compost and produced hundreds of pounds of fruits and vegetables, available to all community members. 

As a source of pride and community for Werle, Tellez, and dozens of other gardeners, it’s understandable, then, that when she found out the City was evicting the garden, Werle’s reaction was to burst into tears. 

It all began when a disgruntled neighbor reported the garden’s values statement — which urges garden members to interrupt “violent behavior or rhetoric that expresses all forms of hate,” including Zionism, anti-semitism, nationalism and transphobia” — to the City’s parks department as discriminatory. After a drawn-out negotiation and several inaccurate hit pieces from The New York Post, the City moved to terminate the garden’s license in May. 

In July, a New York County judge called the gardeners’ activities discriminatory — a claim that the gardeners and their lawyers vehemently deny. The garden’s legal team then brought the case to federal court and has since managed to delay eviction until October 3rd. But for Tellez, Werle and the other gardeners, this is about more than just keeping the garden open. The City’s efforts to close the space could set a troubling precedent, they say, where vibrant community spaces are vulnerable to closure at the request of a single well-connected neighbor.  

“The City claims to care about community-building, especially around community gardens,” Werle said. “But here is this vibrant, diverse community that’s been built to take care of the land and to feed ourselves, and it feels like they’re trying to tear it apart instead of offering even basic conflict resolution.”

The complaints

Sunset Community Garden sits behind Grover Cleveland High School track and field complex at the intersection of Onderdonk and Willoughby Avenues. According to Carlos Martinez, the director of NYC Parks’ Green Thumb program — which administers the City’s community gardens — the garden originated in funding awarded to the neighborhoods surrounding the Newton Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The funding was secured in a lawsuit against the plant, after which the Ridgewood and Greenpoint communities,  guided by the NYC Parks Department, began a yearslong visioning process. Dozens of potential projects were identified, and over 500 people were involved in the discussions. By 2016, Green Thumb had secured $500,000 of funding for a community garden in Ridgewood. After a few more years of discussion between the community and the City, the location was settled and the garden opened in 2023.

A local woman named Christina Wilkinson, who is president of the Newtown Historical Society, was involved in the initial visioning process back in 2016, Martinez said in a recorded meeting with gardeners in April. Werle and Tellez joined the garden in 2023, although by then, Wilkinson was nowhere to be found.

Werle and Tellez said the gardeners decided to draft a series of community values after their first season working together as a way to facilitate collaboration among such a diverse group of people. This is a normal thing to do in communal land stewardship, Werle asserts, and the values were an enormous collaborative effort, the result of six months of surveys, virtual meetings, and in-person discussions among garden members.  As the final document — published in the summer of 2024 — notes in its introduction, it is a “living document,” meant to evolve and change as the garden does. Its tenets are a means of ensuring that all who use the garden feel welcome, Werle says.

“That’s why the agreements were made, because we want everyone to feel safe, so we can make decisions in the most productive and healthy ways possible,” she said. “Which is why it’s so ironic that it’s being touted as a tool of exclusion when it was meant to be a method of inclusion.”

The garden’s community values, written in Spanish and English, include a land acknowledgement and a statement of solidarity with oppressed people around the world, including in Palestine. The document ends with the “community agreements” that condemn and identify homophobia, transphobia, sexism, ableism, fatphobia, xenophobia, Zionism, anti-semitism, nationalism, and racism as forms of hate. The values, the gardeners assert, are not a litmus test but democratically agreed-upon epxression of shared values, and are not meant to exclude. 

In an affidavit, Jewish garden steward Marcy Ayres explains the sense of community she’s fostered at the garden: “I have never felt any anti-semitism from the garden members, and have only felt support and celebration of my identity and faith,” Ayres writes. “Members of the garden even came to a Passover Seder that I held with my family last year.” 

Wilkinson, who had been monitoring the garden’s social media although she was no longer involved, complained to the City in September 2024. According to Martinez in the April meeting, Wilkinson was submitting her complaints through New York City Councilmember Robert Holden, who is known for his pro-Israel stance and with whom Wilkinson has a close relationship.

“Christina Wilkinson has direct access to councilmember Holden, so that’s how we are getting these complaints,” Martinez said. “It’s coming from the top. Basically, we are trapped in the middle.”

When asked via email about the discrimination that spurred her complaint, Wilkinson wrote: “I pointed out that their community values statement was discriminatory and both Parks and a judge agreed with me. There’s nothing further to discuss.” Wilkinson declined to be interviewed for this article.

The Post article 

Shortly after submitting her complaints, Wilkinson spoke to The New York Post, and the conservative outlet launched an aggressive attack against the garden, attempting to paint the gardeners as antisemites. Wilkinson had previously appeared in a July 2024 Post article for her support of an initiative to buy headstones for fallen New York City police officers.

The Post’s September 21, 2024 article, which opens with the line “They’re planting hate,” brought immediate threats and harassment to the gardeners. On September 24, 2024, a group of six white men entered the garden and approached two gardeners. The men, who did not identify themselves, began interrogating the gardeners, who happened to be immigrants from Middle Eastern countries. 

The men asked how they got their keys to the space and whether they were “pro-Hamas.” Meanwhile, dozens of violent and racist comments began appearing in the Post article’s comment section:

“You know what I like?” read one. “Gasoline and matches. Great for removing weeds.” 

“Kilemall,” read another, using an intentional misspelling of “Kill them all” to avoid censors. The commenter continued: “And their families that support them and their terrorism.” 

“Table cloth heads and sarin gas go together,” wrote another. 

Quoted sources in the article include Wilkinson, who has not set foot in the garden in years, and an Israeli woman named Sarah Schraeter-Mowers, whose name neither Werle nor Tellez recognizes. The Post quotes Mayor Eric Adams in its most recent article, whose campaign to confront the “unprecedented rise in anti-semitism and anti-Jewish hate” has been criticized as a tool to silence constitutionally protected speech.

In a written statement, Niki Cross, one of the attorneys representing the gardeners, suggested the garden may be another victim of the mayor’s crackdown.

“The City is favoring the unjustified and baseless feelings of exclusion of someone it openly admits is a transphobe, and who is openly Zionist (that is, supportive of an explicitly discriminatory and genocidal state) precisely in order to actually exclude and punish anyone who expresses solidarity with oppressed peoples and to remove the trans people of color from the community they have carefully cultivated alongside allies,” Cross wrote. “This is what Mayor Adams means by ‘stamping out hate’—in fact he and the City are illegally stamping out dissent.”

In a text message sent to gardeners on April 23, NYC Green Thumb Assistant Director of Community Engagement Alex Muñoz, described the City’s enforcement as “unfair,” and appeared to refer to Wilkinson as a “transphobe.”

“I’m sorry for everything,” Muñoz wrote. “For the changing requirements, the unfair policies, for empowering a transphobe, and for not being there on the ground as soon as the Post article happened.”

The violations 

The violations that the City is enforcing as a result of Wilkinson’s complaints concern the community agreements and a small memorial for Cecilia Gentili, a prominent Argentinian-American trans-rights activist who lived near the garden. When Gentili passed away in February 2024, Tellez and other gardeners who had known her built a 3×3.5 feet tall memorial in the space’s far corner as a way to remember their neighbor.

In September 2024, the City notified the garden that the community agreements constituted an “ideological litmus test” that’s prohibited in NYC Parks’ public spaces.

A few months later, the City told gardeners the Gentili memorial violated NYC Parks’ policy about memorials. The gardeners responded with a clarification that it was in fact an art installation, not a memorial, and was thus subject to NYC Parks’ Arts and Antiquities guidelines. When garden members communicated that they wished for the installation to be permanent, the City suggested either moving the altar to a different space, or subjecting it to a formal approval process that would have it moved to a new space the following year, as large, permanent art installations are prohibited on City land. On May 5, 2025, the City sent the gardeners a termination notice, citing their continued failure to comply with NYC Parks’ public space rules.

The 3×3.5ft memorial for local trans-rights activist Cecilia Gentili is one of the violations cited in the City’s eviction notice.

Werle, Tellez, and the garden’s legal team, however, point out that small art installations are common throughout the city’s public gardens and are — by the City’s own admittance — rarely enforced. Furthermore, Green Thumb’s community garden handbook states only “large art installations” are subject to the written approval process, while gardeners say Green Thumb has not defined what constitutes “large.” 

We try to turn a blind eye,” Martinez said. “Because we know that you guys having art installations is part of the vibrancy of gardens, but when the powers reach out to us and say, ‘hey, you have illegal activity in the garden,’ unfortunately we need to act.”

On June 4th, the NY Supreme Court granted the garden a temporary restraining order halting immediate eviction, but in a July 18 hearing, NY County Supreme Court Judge Hasa Kingo sided against the gardeners, claiming that the garden’s community values violate the First Amendment.

The gardeners withdrew from the NY case and quickly re-filed in federal court, for which a preliminary injunction hearing has been scheduled for October 3. In a written statement directed at Kingo, garden attorney Jonathan Wallace wrote that the judge “completely misapprehends the First Amendment” by construing the community members who lease the garden as the state itself. Gardeners are no more subject to free speech law than would be private citizens leasing government-owned office space, Wallace writes.

The ‘gift that keeps on giving’

In subsequent press releases, the gardeners claim to have attempted to contact and dialogue with the City since the first notice was sent last September, but struggled to get any meaningful compromise. 

Gardeners attempted to meet directly with NYC Parks Department by contacting Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Ridgewood City Council Member Jennifer Gutierrez, NY State Senator Julia Salazar, and NY State Assembly Member Claire Valdez. The Parks Department ignored requests, and Salazar, Valdez, and Gutierrez condemned Kingo’s statement in a July 24 letter:

“We are deeply troubled by accounts of racist and transphobic harassment against the members of Sunset Garden,” they wrote. “People in our community care and want to enjoy this space without fear or intimidation. We need to come together to ensure this garden remains a place of safety and inclusion, and we urge all parties to work toward that future.“

It is unclear exactly what would happen if the City successfully evicts the gardeners.

What will certainly be lost if the City locks the space in October — a critical time for garden care — are years worth of labor and hundreds of pounds of food. And as attorney Wallace notes in his condemnation of Kingo’s decision, successful eviction of the gardeners could lay the groundwork for similar outcomes in other community gardens. He described the legal precedent as potentially a “gift that keeps on giving,” likely to be cited for years to come “by litigants eager to suppress any criticism of Israel and to establish that trans people, people of color, and immigrants do not warrant the protection of our laws.”

The NYC Parks Department declined to comment through its press officer, Chris Clark, due to the ongoing litigation.

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