Little Chapel on the River

Please join me once again to support Kelly Guinan Preusser and her husband Ed Preusser as they hop on bicycles to ride from Boston to New York City in the Sept. 28th to 30th "Braking the Cycle" in honor of Kelly's late father, John Guinan . It's a tough fundraising environment out there, and any amount will go a long way to help them reach their goal of $3500 per rider. Here's the link to donate . I won't be able to ride with them this year, but encourage anyone who has supported me in the past to please consider supporting Ed and Kelly. It's not easy to commit to this ride year after year - and this year's proceeds will go to support Housing Works , a community for people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. Thanks to everyone who continues to honor John with their gifts and support.

Long live the Chapel! A group of parishioners -- including family members Margaret Guinan, Kelly Guinan, Mary Jane Guinan & Ed Preusser -- gathered at the Chapel to celebrate the High Holy Day. Building might be shut, but you can't keep the community away. Everyone is very excited about the upcoming renovation and reopening . Helping organize the event was Jay Vitale , a friend of the late John Guinan , who in honor of John has started a very cool charity called "Guinan's Aurora" where he collects used bicycles bound for the landfill and partners with local bike shops to help refurbish and distribute them to under privileged children or children in remission from life-threatening illnesses. He's done incredible things so far. You can connect with Jay at www.guinansaurora.org or on here on Facebook . Address below: P.O. Box 208 Garrison NY 10524 845.424.6078

These comments were just a few of the warm sentiments posted on Facebook by "parishioners" on St. Patrick's Day, 2010, in honor of Jim Guinan, his family and the Guinan's Pub & Country store. First posting was mine, the rest are responses. Cheers everyone. "Happy High Holy Day to all parishioners...and a toast to the late high priest himself, Jim Guinan. This day a year ago was the last time most of us saw you." Carolyn McDonough Smith , Sandra Souza-desimone , Missy Nibert Fescemyer and 15 others like this. Kristi Lafoon Still one of my favorite books ever. Thanks so much for the picture! Yesterday at 8:43am · Patti Anderson St. Patrick's Day is the day one just automatically thinks of the Guinan's! Yesterday at 8:48am · Brian Bosley I never met him, but your book made me feel I knew him. Happy St. Patrick's Day Yesterday at 8:53am · Elizabeth Weinstein McMahon hdgdnhdgfffftredrddddfdrff ffrfrrrrrrreeeeeeeee44 e4444444 Yesterday at 8:...

Today would have been the 58th birthday of the late John Guinan . Here's a toast to him and his family. He's probably smiling down on the newest addition to the Guinan clan, Aurora Faye Preusser .

Congratulations to Kelly Guinan Preusser and Ed Preusser for the birth of their daughter, Aurora Faye Preusser . She came into the world on February 9th at 8:20 p.m. weighing 6 lbs, 14 oz and stretching a full 20 inches. Aurora has the pleasure of slumbering in the same crib as her father, Ed, his father Ed , her uncle John and several cousins, Daddy reports. The history continues ...

Christine Guinan D'Onofrio , Jim's youngest daughter, recently shared these two compelling photos she took. The first she shot last year when her father had returned to the Hudson Highlands for his son John's funeral . While there, Jim went down to #7 Garrison's Landing to see his old home again. The image speaks for itself. The second is a single flower that Christine found blooming unexpectedly on an old family rose bush at her home in Florida after she arrived there from her father's funeral in April of this year. There had not been blooms on the bush for a couple of years. Christine says she took this single flower as a sign from her Mom, Peg , that Jim had arrived to his wife safe and sound in heaven.

Photo taken May 24, 2008 by Roy Gumpel. All rights reserved.

From Hank Beukema in memory of Jim Guinan.

From Russ Cusick in honor of Jim Guinan: "Sadly, As many of you are aware, the incomparable Jim Guinan died on April 1st . I had some "Guinan's" photos from 1/29/08 (two days before the closing of "Guinan's,") with which I've put together a youtube video (above.) The camera crew shown in a couple of the photos is from Fox Business News....they were on location, shooting a story on Mr. Guinan and the "Guinan's" legacy in which the Author of "Little Chapel on the River," Wendy Bounds, John Guinan, and Jim Guinan were all interviewed."

From the Guinan family: "Jim was involved with many organizations and if you would like to make a donation, in lieu of flowers, please consider one of the following: the James & Peg Guinan Family Community Award fund at the Garrison Union Free School - established in 2006 to honor the GUFS student who most strongly exhibits leadership by giving back to their community during the school year (for more information please contact Sue Huetter @ 845-424-3689); The Garrison Volunteer Fire Department ; the Garrison Volunteer Ambulance Corp . or the American Diabetes Association in his memory. "

There is a short, sweet obituary for Jim Guinan on the Web site of Loyless Funeral Home in Florida. The site has a online guest book where you can leave a note about Jim. The family is currently deciding where they may request donations be made in lieu of flowers.

James Guinan died last night at Tampa University Community Hospital following complications from a chest cold. He was 83 years old. Jim was with his daughters Christine and Margaret, his son-in-law Mike and some of his grandchildren. His friends and family in the Hudson Highlands were fortunate to have seen him here in "God's Country," as he called it, around St. Patrick's Day. The family is still working out details and timing of the memorial services, and I will update everything here when they are ready, but here is the information they have so far. They thank everyone for their thoughts, good wishes and prayers: Visitation: Monday, April 13th and Tuesday April 14th Clinton Funeral Home 21 Parrott Street, Cold Spring, NY 10516(845) 265-3333 2-4PM and 7-9PM (both days) Funeral and Mass: Wednesday, April 15th Our Lady of Loretto 24 Fair Street, Cold Spring, NY 10516(845) 265-3781 10AM Interment to follow at the Cold Spring Cemetery He was the Mayor of Garrison, he ...

This photo of the "high priest" himself, Jim Guinan , was taken on Guinan's Day 2005. We're lucky to have Jim back in the Hudson Valley for the High Holy Day 2009. He heads back home to his daughter Christine and son-in-law Mike 's in Florida soon after a good long visit with his daughter Margaret . Jim will be out and about in town tonight with some of the parishioners and his granddaughter Kelly ...maybe even singing Danny Boy. (Hint: somewhere on Main Street in Cold Spring) So shhhh..... All rights reserved on photo.

Barkeep a giving person right up to his own death Barbara Livingston Nackman 666 words 17 June 2008 Poughkeepsie Journal 1B English (c) Copyright 2008, Poughkeepsie Journal. All Rights Reserved. GARRISON - For a decade, Fishkill resident John Guinan each year rode his bike hundreds of miles to raise money to combat AIDS, the disease that took the life of his brother-in-law. Now, friends and relatives of the man whose family founded the legendary Guinan's pub will do the same to honor his memory this fall. Guinan, 56, died June 3 at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie after a two-year battle with brain cancer. Guinan first realized some numbness in 2006 during his last ride for Braking the Cycle, which benefits health services at New York City's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center. Garrison resident Gwendolyn Bounds rode with Guinan. A columnist for the Wall Street Journal, she wrote "Little Chapel on the River," chronicling how Guinan...

Garrison resident, friend to John Guinan and morning commuter Dwight Garner wrote this fine tribute to John Guinan today on his New York Times book blog, Paper Cuts . Last year Dwight posted about his commute from Garrison , and noted how Guinan's was one of the "Hudson Valley’s last great establishments." No argument here. In today's post, Dwight fittingly described Garrison's loss of John this way: "The town feels atomized without him." During John's battle with brain cancer, Dwight often sent John books he thought he'd shine to -- just another example of the small ways the morning commuters paid back the man behind the bar for his kinship. Dwight lives here with his wife, author Cree LeFavour , who writes this interesting, visual foodie blog called On the Plate .

New York Times "Our Towns" columnist Peter Applebome Friday penned this tribute to John Guinan and the Garrison's Landing store his family ran from 1959 until 2008. Peter has written two other stories about Guinans, one in 2007 and another this year. In his most recent post, Peter included a moving quote from John about what the store meant to him all these years: “I’m not sure exactly how, but we became a comfort zone for people,” [John] said, “a place that reminds people of a place they went to when they were young, something that makes them think good thoughts. People need a place like this, but the reward you get for the kindness you provide is worth much more than whatever you give out. It blows me away to be a part of it.” John also would have been blown away at the generosity of the community during his wake, funeral service and memorial reception at Garrison's Landing. One of his dear friends, Mary Ellen Yannitelli -- who has proposed opening a new store ...

Friends of the Guinan family gathered yesterday to celebrate the life of John Guinan at Our Lady of Loretto in Cold Spring, N.Y. and later on Garrison's Landing at a reception hosted by the Garrison Art Center . Bagpipers (from the Cold Spring Fire Co. Pipe & Drum Corps , I'm told) gave a wonderful farewell to him. Several riders from Braking the Cycle came by train from New York to commemorate John, who has pedaled with them since the ride's inception. The organizers of Braking the Cycle, among them Eric Epstein , Blake Strasser and Steve Bratton , have graciously made John honorary Rider Number 1 this year. This ride was enormously important to John. He rode every year to celebrat e the life of his late brother-in-law Tommy . His wife Mary Jane often crewed; now his daughter Kelly leads a team of us from Guinan's who ride in his stead. In lieu of flowers or other tributes to John, the family has asked that donations be made to Braking the Cycle and Team Gui...

This is the outside of now-closed Guinan's Pub & Country Store yesterday, where flowers, dolls, photos and even a bottle of Harp are being laid in honor of John Guinan who died Tuesday night. While the store has been gutted and is empty inside, it's still filled with the stories and souls of the people who loved it and the family who kept its doors open nearly 50 years. Today, we will gather to honor John Guinan both in church and later on the shores of the Hudson near the store where so many of us first came to know him. Photo by Christine Ashburn

An obituary for John Guinan ran today in the Poughkeepsie Journal. Many people know John mostly from his days behind the counter at Guinan's Pub & Country Store. But reading this testimony to his life sheds light on the many other facets of his character. For details about the memorial services being held for John, as well as how to reach the family, please see this post .

John Guinan died last night after a long, and extraordinarily brave fight with brain cancer. He is survived by his wife Mary Jane, children Sean, Kelly and Casey, granddaughter Zoe, his siblings Margaret, Christine and Jimmy and his father Jim. Your notes and calls to John over the past 18 months have meant more than you'll ever know. Rarely does someone hear such widespread affection from so many corners of the world. He deserved all of the love but took none of it for granted. And he changed many lives, my own included, in big and small ways. The family will hold a wake from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday: Clinton Funeral Home 21 Parrott Street Cold Spring, NY 10516 (845) 265-3333 John's funeral will be at 10 a.m. on Saturday: Our Lady of Loretto 24 Fair Street Cold Spring, NY 10516 (845) 265-3781 In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to Braking the Cycle and Team Guinan. This link will take you directly to Team Guinan's donation...