Last Thursday, May 11th, Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato (D-Rockaway) met with Kacper and Julia Wroblewski at Waterside School to present them with a citation for bravery. The young children’s apartment on Shorefront Parkway burned when an incompletely extinguished cigarette was flicked by another resident onto their balcony. The two children likely saved their and their mother’s lives by smelling the fire and alerting her, allowing the three to evacuate with no injuries but a near-total loss of property. The Wroblewskis have been working ever since with building management to secure temporary housing, and are hoping to soon move into a permanent new apartment.

“Kacper and Julia embody the spirit of the Rockaway Peninsula,” said Pheffer Amato. “They’re such bright, loving kids, and they’ve been through a crazy amount considering they’re less than ten years old. But they’ve endured this hardship with the help and support of their parents, neighbors and classmates, which is how we do things in Rockaway. They took an awful situation and are making the best of it. I want Kacper, Julia and their family to know they’ll always have the support of my office and the rest of us here in Rockaway Park, and in true Peninsula fashion, I know they’ll grow to make us proud and return the favor if life ever deals a bad hand to a neighbor.”