Each spring the ferry coming across the bay to the Grovebrings Bella “home.” From the beginning, Richie-Bella found aplace where “people put their arms around me with love, insteadpushing me down to the ground, full of hate.”

Richard Iorio from the Bronx says he was “a fat and queerteenager,” a recipe back then for extreme bullying and bashing(some things don’t seem to change, sad to say.) While Richiehad to go to school and endure the frightening abuse, he ranhome each day and locked himself in the bedroom. That’s thebad news. But the good is that’s where Richie found Bella andcreated her marvelous persona. Bella’s first performances werein the living room for really close friends.

“Then when I was about 20,” Richie-Bella says, “my friend Tony suggested I enter the weekly talent contest at PalisadesAmusement Park.” Richie thought he could never do this, but “Bella from the Bronx” worked up the courage, won the contest,and then became the weekly headliner with Bella’s name up inlights.

One night a man came over to Richie-Bella and offered him a part as an extra in a show. The man was Dickie Addison and the show was for the Arts Project in Cherry Grove. Bella performed “I Got Love” from the Broadway musical “Purlie.” It was 1972 when Dickie brought Bella to Cherry Grove. “The second person I met here was Rose Levine,” Bella says with a smile.

“I felt for the first time, I was home,’ Bella remembers. “Noone shoved me or taunted me or teased me or hurt me.Everyone here was a little like me and I was a little like them.And I knew this was where I wanted to live.”

For the next 40 years, Bella became a Grove icon,performing in Arts Project productions and becoming aheadliner at the Ice Palace. Who can forget the glamour andglitz when Bella takes stage? Who can forget the amazinglyprecise lip-syncing that makes you wonder if maybe she reallyis singing after all. Who can forget the hysterical (if somewhatblue) lyrics to “Everyone’s You-know-what-ing But Me?” Whocan forget Bella as Susan Boyle, or Norma Desmond, orflinging the drag queens overboard as she sync-ed the songfrom “Titanic?’ There are moments of high comedy andcraziness with Bella dashing around the stages with skirtsflying; moments of extreme naughtiness, moments of haughtyglamour, and moments of poignancy. But always the momentsare of the incomparable Bella.

Bella’s mother was her rock. “She loved Bella as Richieand Richie as Bella, she loved my friends, she loved cominghere. I miss her very much.” You may not know it but at everyperformance Bella always wears a little something of herbeloved mother’s. Something that glitters. Something to “keepher with me.”

Richie says that Bella opened up doors that wouldotherwise have been closed. “If I had stayed Richie Iorio fromthe Bronx, I would never have done the things I’ve done, neverhave met the people I’ve met. I am so lucky I am Bella.”

In 1992 Bella-Richie bought “Passion” on Maryland Walkafter years of renting all over the island with many roommates.One was Angelo, and may people thought they were lovers andwould report back sightings of Angelo kissing someone else.“It was his boyfriend, for Pete’s sake! I was just his roommate!Oh, this town!!”

Bella’s latest passion in town is the Community House.“We have to raise the funds to save it,” Bella says, calling itthe roots of the community. “People come here, but until theyfind their way to the Community House they really don’t havea feel for the Grove.” To do her part, Bella has made it hercause for the next few summers to remind all her audiencesof the need to donate money to the Save Our CommunityHouse Campaign.

“Think of all the wonderful performers who have appearedon its stage. It’s a piece of our history,” she says.

“I love my audiences, I love to make people laugh andhave a great time,” she says. Although it’s Bella who is beinghonored tonight, she and Richie decided it was appropriate totell you that he loves you all, very much.

Thanks, Bella-Richie. We love you right back.