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| by kenn on 12/26/2003 04:13:00 PM |
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Mike & Jay-Z lend a hand -
just be Claus
 Santa spread his yuletide cheer in some unusual guises yesterday - with help from Mayor B, Jay-Z and a helper named Beyoncé. Rapper Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, doled out toys for hundreds of tots in his old neighborhood in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
Jay-Z's two previous holiday visits to the Marcy Houses have been huge hits with the kids. But the atmosphere was electric this year because in addition to $15,000 worth of toys, he brought along girlfriend, Beyoncé Knowles. "Everyone knew Jay-Z was going to be here, but I was surprised to see Beyoncé," said Tiffany Williams, 15, who got a Memphis Bleek CD and a high-tech pen from the Grammy Award-winning hip hop star.
"It's nice," Tiffany said of Jay-Z's largess. "It's the right thing to do. You don't forget where you came from." Jay-Z, 34, brushed off the compliment, calling his deeds "enrichment for the soul."
Mayor Bloomberg began his second Christmas as mayor with a somber visit to Engine 95/Ladder 36 in upper Manhattan, the firehouse where fallen Firefighter Thomas Brick worked.
Brick, who died nine days before Christmas, was the first city firefighter to die battling a fire since Sept. 11, 2001.
Bloomberg later visited the Union Settlement senior center in East Harlem, accompanied by his girlfriend, Diana Taylor.
Bloomberg donned a Citymeals-on-Wheels apron and helped prepare holiday dinners for 300 people who were home alone on Christmas.
"When you get a meal, it says somebody cares," he said.
Marcia Stein, executive director of Citymeals-on-Wheels, said 12,000 to 13,000 people citywide will get meals at home. She estimated another 30,000 to 40,000 people will get meals in centers across the city.
Bloomberg then visited the 311 center in lower Manhattan, where 58 agents fielded a spate of calls on parking rules and from lonely New Yorkers who just wanted to chat.
"We didn't have a lot of reindeer calls over the night," joked Gino Menchini, commissioner of the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications.
"We checked. I wanted to make sure that we had content in our system to be able to handle that," Menchini said. Cherelle Mayfield, a 311 phone agent who lives in Manhattan, said she appreciated Bloomberg's visit. Mayfield, who was working from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., said it wasn't that difficult for her to work Christmas.
"The remainder of the day, I'll be with my family," Mayfield said.
At the God's Love We Deliver kitchen on Spring St., volunteers including 61-year-old David Christmas made 2,500 meals of rice, stuffed Cornish hen and gingerbread cake for more than 1,500 families with seriously ill patients. "I love being here for this," said the gray-haired, goateed Christmas. "You can't say no to working today."
Roz Gilbert, 68, of Kips Bay, has been volunteering since she lost her 31-year-old son, Frank, to AIDS in 1991. She said she was touched because Frank got the charity's meals during his last months.
"After he died, it was payback time," she said as she spooned the birds into the aluminum tins.
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