I knew Whitehouse Director of Urban Affairs, Adolfo Carrion Jr. as a teenager when I sang at his Dad's church in Eldrige Street in New York City. I was just 14 years old . We were both innocent youngsters who used to worship at meetings and youth rallies, where my sisters and I were invited to sing.

Filled with gladness we were able to catch up a little about the good old days and were in disbelief of how quickly time passes. I always remembered the Director of Urban Affair's family being an upstanding family of extremely high values and especially remember the priceless advice that his mother dispensed, during those times when I really needed it most. His parents were two people of the highest calibre that I deeply admired and highly respected. I served as Secretary of the Embajadores de Cristo (Ambassadors of Christ) Brooklyn Chapter for one year in 1977 and was elected District Secretary of the Embajadores de Cristo's entire Eastern Spanish District in 1978, yet for another year - a monumental task that I still have no idea how that happened, except for God's grace. (Of course, I am stronger, more mature and much better equipped now to handle that job if I had to do it today.) Wherever there was an EC event, there we all were, the EC youth, happy to join in on the youth rallies and activities that were afforded to us by the EC. Adolfo Carrion, Jr.? Popular, earnest, fun loving, well adjusted and loved by all - the guy most likely to succeed - he was always everywhere we went, lighting up events with his trademark smile and people swarming around him.

Everyone looked up to and turned to Adolfo Carrion, Jr. It seems that does not change. It's rare to hold private audience with him now as it was then. Nothing has changed about that, but naturally it's for the good of the Bronx these days and pretty soon for the good of all of New York City. I never doubted for one second that Carrion Jr. would excel to the heights of his existing political career. He has always possessed several important qualities. He, just like his Dad before him, is brilliant and someone who genuinely cares about people. When news of his election to Bronx Borough President broke 7 years ago, it was not news to me at all. I knew, as thousands of other people who came to meet him in his youth, that Adolfo Carrion, Jr. had the potential to make it to where he is today and no doubt make it even further, again, because he is an earnest person who continues to care about people.

Those who know Carrion Jr., I am certain, will continue to support him, bearing one very important fact - they know first hand, not through the press, or the evening news, that the man is an upstanding person, who is a shaker and a doer (i.e., bringing public focus to the plight of the people of Vieques, PR, when not very many people were looking and did not care about what was happening there) who does not lose his heart to politics alone, but who continues to allow himself to be guided by the knowledge of the needs of others - which makes me wonder what's next for Carrion Jr. - City Comptroller in 2009? Well, that sounds great to me.
I am normally not big on accolades and not that Carrion, Jr. needs validation from me or anyone else for that matter, but this is just one of those things that I genuinely feel needs to be said, and that is that Adolfo Carrion, Jr. is a great person and one of the most exemplary people, that I have ever known.

Carmen