Brianna O’Hagan is Oceanside Citizen of the Year

Brianna O’Hagan, the general manager of EGP Oceanside, is not just dedicated to running a successful gastropub. She’s also a passionate advocate of community service, and was recently awarded the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce’s 2024 Citizen of the Year Award. She will be honored at the annual chamber cocktail reception on February 29th at Temple Avodah.

O’Hagan, 31, has deep roots in the area — she was born and raised in East Rockaway — and her community involvement began organically, driven by a desire to make local connections.

Her father, Tim O’Hagan, owner of EGP, was a basketball coach at Molloy College, now Molloy University, which Brianna attended and where she played soccer. Her goal at the time was to be a teacher. After earning her teaching degree — but having misgivings about the state’s Common Core curriculum — she took her father’s advice and tried the restaurant business, which she came to think of as another form of teaching.

“It’s a little bit higher than that — maybe more like a principal,” O’Hagan said. “You’re teaching people how to serve; you’re teaching people how to treat other people. You’re running a business at the same time, and you’re dealing with a lot of people. I took a lot from my college education that I never would have thought would have translated to the restaurant, but it did, and I learned a lot along the way.”

The oldest of four siblings, O’Hagan has long had a passion for giving back, which she credits to her dad. At Molloy, he teamed up with the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to improving the lives of children with brain tumors and their families, which matched children in need of love, support and friendship with college and high school sports team.

“I remember the little girl became a part of our family,” O’Hagan recalled. “Everyone wanted to be involved with it, and seeing … what my dad had done as a coach, and just as a person, always trying to give back to people, I wanted to model that and carry that on as well. I would say I took that from him.”

Last month Oceanside held its 11th annual Holiday Toy Drive and Adopt a Family event, in which over 500 toys were donated. A decade ago, O’Hagan, who still lives in East Rockaway, started organizing toy drives with sports teams when she was a softball coach at East Rockaway High, after she graduated in 2010.

To promote sportsmanship, she teamed up with the girls’ varsity basketball team to collaborate with visiting teams before games to donate toys to NYU Langone Cancer Center for Kids. She brought the drive to Rockville Center as well, and discovered that more and more people wanted to be involved with it.

O’Hagan’s toy drive began modestly: She collected toys at her house. Over the years, the effort has grown substantially, involving local sports teams and businesses as well as residents. O’Hagan and her crew sort and distribute gifts to 25 local families during the holiday season. Adopt a Family volunteers work from local children’s wish lists. The rest of the toys are donated to the Center for Kids.

As the oldest in her family, she wanted to serve as an inspiration. “I was trying to show my siblings that there was more to the holidays than just receiving gifts, and show how fortunate our family was to be able to receive gifts for the holidays,” she said. “I was trying to think of a way that I could show them how to give back, and one way was collecting toys and then donating them to a local hospital.”

The annual Fall Fest, initiated by EGP Oceanside, stands out as a testament to her commitment. Each year, the day benefits a local family facing challenges. The Fest started as a way to bring people together, and gradually evolved into a platform for giving back.

“It wasn’t supposed to be a fundraiser,” O’Hagan said. “It was supposed to be a regular community event, and at the last minute we started the pumpkin patch, where we just charge $5 a person to take their pumpkin and decorate it, and we can take that money and donate it back to someone in the community. We got a $500 response, and we donated it to a local kid who had cancer, and from that point on we thought we could make it into a really big event.”

O’Hagan recounted how the Fall Fest has created bonds with families that she has helped. Liam Driscoll, 9, son of Oceanside Community Warrior Brian Driscoll, faced medical challenges when he was 2, and had the Fall Fest dedicated to him, and his father and O’Hagan formed a friendship. The Fall Festival honorees have included Danielle and Sean Murray, who were both diagnosed with cancer, and just recently, the family of Ava Salonia, after Ava died of leukemia.

“These are people that you’ve created relationships with,” O’Hagan said. “Danielle and Sean Murray, I talk to, and this past year was for Ava. I was very close to Ava, and I’m very close to her mom.”

Despite her busy schedule, O’Hagan remains dedicated to her community. She said that while the honor of Citizen of the Year is appreciated, her primary focus remains on doing what she believes is the right thing for the community.

“Although it’s nice,” she said, “I didn’t ever do anything that I do for any sort of accolade.”