Breast Cancer Awareness Month begins this Friday, and Dr. Bert Petersen, director of the Breast Surgery Clinic at St. Barnabas Hospital, knows women have gotten the message after all these years: get regular mammograms because early detection is vital to survival.

“There’s nothing new, haven’t we all heard that?” he said. “It’s easy, sexy … politicians use it to get votes, saying, ‘I’m for free mammograms!’”

But there’s a second part.

“I’m a big proponent of early detection, but we can’t just do screening programs for the sake of screening,” he said. “After you tell a woman there is an abnormality, then what? There must be follow up. What are we doing to see what care they get?”

Petersen, 48, has devoted his 14-year career to helping women overcome the disease. He came to St. Barnabas about a year ago after serving as chief of breast surgery at Hackensack (N.J.) Medical Center and as an attending physician at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan.

Women in the areas served by those hospitals tended to have better care than those in the inner city.

“When I look at the issue of breast cancer in communities of African-American and Latina women, more young women under 50 in these communities get diagnosed than any other ethnic group,” Petersen said. “They are dying at higher rates.

“These are women in their prime, at a time when they want to raise children, get their education, have a career. Breast cancer has a greater social impact.”

Petersen is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and did his training at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

He decided his specialty in oncology would be breast cancer – a choice influenced more by the heart than by science.

“I was raised by a single mother who worked two jobs seven days a week,” Petersen said. “I think, ‘What if my mother had gotten diagnosed with breast cancer?’ She was the breadwinner, the nurturer. She means everything to me.”

He said he was stunned when he learned that St. Barnabas offers state-of-the-art breast cancer treatment.

“I’ve seen horrific examples at some hospitals in New York, where women have no access to quality health care.”

He credits the hospital’s mobile mammography units – which park outside hair salons, laundermats and other neighborhood places – with going a long way toward helping women get care early.

“Even women who have insurance, some of them can’t take a day off to get a mammogram, so sending mobile units serves them,” Petersen said.

What a difference two years make in Bronx Democratic politics.

Wednesday’s Democratic County Committee Convention was worthy of filming for the Insomnia Channel, as it was totally on script to reelect Carl Heastie chairman of the executive committee of the party. Translation: Party Boss.

Compare that to the “Looney Tunes”/fascist rally at the old Loew’s Paradise on the Concourse that September night in 2008.

Reigning party boss Jose Rivera and his loyalists packed the place with supporters and confused seniors mingled among the valid electors to steamroll his election, then walked out – after pulling the plug on the sound system.

Carl and other members of the insurgent Rainbow Rebellion, tired of Jose’s all-Puerto Rican, all-the-time favoritism, then held their own vote by the legal numbers. A court battle ensued, and Carl’s side triumphed.

Carl has since managed to bring about peace with Jose’s camp.

Birthday boy

And a Happy Birthday to Carl (43 on Sept. 25, Libra).

Instead of singing “Happy Birthday,” he should get Aretha singing “Respect.” He’s earned it – and increased the borough’s muscle in the City Council and Albany.

Here comes the judge

And speaking of another past political brawl, the party’s judicial nominating convention Thursday night at Villa Barone was a similar generally orchestrated snooze compared to last year’s.

That’s when Parkchester Assemblyman Peter Rivera and Carl wound up with supporters holding both of them back in one of those spittle-flecked, in-your-face shouting matches.

It boiled down to Peter still being on the outs and trying to topple new party boss Carl.

Since Carl more or less supported Peter in this year’s primary against challenger Luis Sepulveda, there’s a new accord between the two.

As for judgeships, the judicial delegates nominated Civil Court/Acting Supreme Court Justice Edgar Walker for the November ballot line to move up full time to Supreme Court.

The Rivera factor

State Sen. Pedro Espada’s campaign operative Haile Rivera tells the Norwood News that within that voter tidal wave that drowned the Wascally Wabbit, “an overwhelming number of voters” confused winner Gustavo Rivera with long-serving, well-known Assemblyman Jose Rivera.

Jose trounced challenger Sergio Villaverde in his Fordham/Kingsbridge Heights district.

“It is good to be a Rivera in the Bronx,” sayeth political consultant Mike Nieves, a longtime Jose confidant.

Mike just couldn’t work any campaign magic for client and ex-state Sen. Hiram Monseratte in that desperate Queens Assembly run.

Herbert H. Lehman High School’s football team will never make those last 20 precious yards for a touchdown.

At least not on their home turf.

When the Westchester Square school was built in 1972, the city’s then-Board of Education gave it an 80-yard football field, keeping the city champs from ever having a home game.

“It’s really a stressful situation,” said Diane Hamilton, Lehman’s athletic director. “It’s just unfair to the kids.”

It’s been a fumbling mess for decades, and even though the Department of Education’s School Construction Authority has earmarked .8 million for Lehman’s new field – which includes new turf, a new scoreboard and outdoor lighting – no expansion is planned.

The DOE says it’s a money issue – there isn’t enough cash in the city’s coffers to buy the extra yardage.

But according to school staff, the city sold off Lehman’s surrounding property before the school was built, taking away land needed to make a regulation-sized field. Today, there’s a White Castle franchise to show for it.

“We have good kids that work really hard – they use football to stay off the streets,” said Michael Saunds, Lehman’s varsity coach. “But we can never practice a full game – we’re restricted.”

Before the School Construction Authority breaks ground in November, school administrators are looking to strike a deal to acquire two lots owned by property developer Joe Simone and S.D.C. Ferris Associates.

The property, currently leased to the city to house repossessed cars, would give enough space for a full-length field.

But in the meantime, Lehman’s football future is in limbo.

“It’s been rough – we can’t take pride in this field,” said David White, a junior on Lehman’s varsity team. “Everyone has their home – we don’t.”

The team, which has consistently ranked as one of the top five teams in the city, is the only one in the Bronx without a field of its own.

Displacement has come at a hefty price. Hamilton said the school pays ,800 more a year than other schools to cover its team’s transportation costs.

And since Lehman can never play a home game, the team has never raised money through ticket or concession sales.

It has been a test in team morale, but Lehman’s players are keeping their heads up.

“It’s okay for our kids because they love football,” said Hamilton.

“But on the field, they’ll turn around – and no one’s watching.”

A funeral service will be held Friday for the six members of a Bronx church who died when their van flipped on the New York State Thruway.

“We are holding together, worshiping together, and we’ll take it one day at a time,” said Katherine Lawrence, a congregant at Joy Fellowship Christian Assemblies.

An open-casket viewing of Bishop Simon White and five church members will take place at the neighboring Bronx Community Protestant Church from noon to 5 p.m. Friday.

The funeral service will begin at 6 p.m. at the same location, 1659 E. Gun Hill Road.

A second viewing for family, friends and church members will be held at 9a.m. Saturday.

Bishop White, his wife, Minister Zelda White, Deaconess Elaine Reid and Associate Pastor Titus McGhie will be buried at Kensico Cemetery in upstate Valhalla.

Missionary Avril Murray and Evelyn Ferguson will be buried in their native Jamaica.

Fourteen church members were heading to a banquet in Schenectady on Sept. 18 when their van blew a tire and flipped several times.

The venerable Strand Book Store is combating the Kindle – with candy.

Customers are abuzz over a newly built Candyland on the shelves beneath the 40-foot-long checkout counter at the Union Square used-book mecca.

Old-fashioned sweets like .95 boxes of Gobstoppers, .95 chewable wax lips and three-for-35-cents Pixy Stix convert visitors with no intention of buying books into spenders.

“Browsers who come here to kill time wind up buying candy,” said store co-owner Fred Bass.

The tweak in the business strategy of the Strand – and of countless retailers across the city – is intended to coax cash out of penny-pinchers’ pockets with creative measures to help bolster sales in a weak economy.

“We’re a bargain book store,” he said. “Penny-pinchers are our customers.”

Small displays of chocolate bars flank Barnes & Noble cash registers; the Penn Station Borders has racks of “movie candy” for shoppers headed to a nearby multiplex.

The Strand took a page from those playbooks but went heavy on nostalgic merchandise like Nik-L-Nips, Charleston Chews and bubblegum cigars because it’s an antiquarian bookseller.

Its sugar-saturated candy wonderland replaced shelves of books that weren’t selling.

“We’re selling five times as much candy as we did ‘register books,’ ” said Bass, 82. “Candy is an impulse buy.”

Chu for News  
Filippo Tortora stands in front of his pizza counter in the Bronx.

I’LL HAVE THE OBAMA SPECIAL

Filippo Tortora’s customers switched to cash from credit cards and turned into very cautious spenders.

He decided his pizza parlor in the Pelham Parkway section of the Bronx was having an anniversary and declared an anniversary sale.

Tortora plastered signs all over La Pentola – outside the door and by the cash register – for pepperoni rolls, stromboli and 50-cent Italian ices. The cart vendors down the street on White Plains Road charge 75 cents for the frozen treats.

Tortora persuaded supplier Roma Food to get him good deals on flour, cheese, tomatoes and even pizza boxes so he can afford to slash his prices.

“We got a lot of families in financial difficulties,” the pizzeria co-owner explained.

Some days he charges for a slice of pizza with a can of soda. Many customers ask instead to pay for a slice and drink free cups of water. He tells them yes.

After all, some days he does offer a one-buck slice promo he calls the Obama Special.

“I want to help the neighborhood,” said Tortora, 45. “A lot of people have lost their jobs.”

BROADCASTING THE DISCOUNTS

There are dozens of hairdressers on Fulton St. in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. But only one has an electronic news zipper in its window.

James McSherry was back teaching at Lehman High School this week, far from the smog and glitz of L.A., where his independent movie won its seventh top award at a major film festival.

“I’m so proud of this film,” said McSherry, 48. “It tells a story from my life, a story about the Bronx.”

The shoestring-budget short “Poetry Man” – about a childhood pal who went to jail for murder – won the President’s Award at last weekend’s Burbank International Film Festival.

It also has won honors at the Manhattan Film Festival, the Los Angeles Movie Awards, the Long Island Film Expo and the Jersey Shore Film Festival.

The film, to be screened tomorrow at the Coney Island Film Festival, is an achievement capping a hardscrabble life: He came from a broken home, and his alcoholic father was murdered when he was in eighth grade.

Although some pals fell into a life of crime, McSherry graduated from Columbia University’s writing program with a master’s degree and taught at alma mater Lehman High School in the Bronx.

He penned poems and published a memoir of his childhood, which was shaped by his father’s April 1976 death.

Thomas McSherry was sleeping in an abandoned car in an alley off Westchester Square, and someone set it afire.

“When I was 18, I wanted to get revenge,” McSherry said. “I was going to bars where he hung out, trying to find out who did it. I ran into a guy who knew my father; he told me my father would have been dead or in jail by then anyway.

“It was a turning point. I concentrated on positive things.”

His movie is inspired by a true story: A friend was arrested for a drug-related murder in Throgs Neck in the late 1980s, while McSherry was at Columbia.

It was filmed in McSherry’s home borough with Peter Greene (“The Bounty Hunter,” “Pulp Fiction”) starring as Nicky, the shooter, and McSherry’s pals and his daughter, Paige, playing roles. “NYPD Blue” producer Bill Clark does a cameo as a homicide detective.

The real Nicky was sentenced to 25 years to life for the murder. He did 21 years and was freed just in time to attend a screening of “Poetry Man” in July.

“We grew up together,” McSherry said. “I became a teacher; he hung out with hoodlums. But when it’s happening to you, it’s just another day in the Bronx. When you look back, you think, ‘Thank God I didn’t go with that guy.’

“If I didn’t have writing, I would have been hanging out with Nicky.”

poshaughnessy@nydailynews.com

AMELIA SCHEFFS-BEVINGTON wants people to see the world through her eyes.

And even though the 10-year-old brain cancer patient encounters more than her fair share of hospital beds and doctors, those aren’t the things she sees when she’s behind a camera.

Amelia spends most of her free time snapping closeups of mockingbirds on her terrace or antelopes at the Bronx Zoo.

A collection of her photos will be on display at TEN10 Studios on 47th Road in Long Island City tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday – timed aptly for Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month.

Because chemotherapy has sapped much of Amelia’s energy, she can’t talk much right now, except in the late hours of the night.

When her mom, Kate Bevington, asked Amelia on behalf of the Daily News why she likes to take picture of animals, Amelia replied: “They’re all so cute.”

Bevington gave her daughter her first camera two years ago. Since then, Amelia has produced quite a body of work.

“What’s great about the photos is they are very pure,” said studio owner Jesse Winter. “We get kind of cynical in our old age and forget to appreciate how beautiful a dog or a seagull can be.”

Many of the photos were taken at the Long Island City waterfront or on Amelia’s twice-weekly trips to aquariums and zoos. Bevington schedules the trips around her daughter’s hospital visits and chemotherapy treatments.

Amelia was diagnosed with medulloblastoma – the most common malignant brain tumor in children – when she was 6 years old. Bevington compares getting the news to “getting on a freight train that never stops.”

Amelia quickly underwent surgery for a malignant brain tumor, followed by 14 months of grueling treatment, only to be told in 2008 that the disease had returned.

Amelia has been hospitalized three times this year. She has participated in clinical trials and has daily oral chemotherapy treatments.

In between treatments and her regimen of natural remedies and vitamins, Amelia spends time playing Wii games, drawing and researching her favorite furry friends on the Internet.

Asked why she wants to share her photos, Amelia said: “I like to see the photos all together – pretty and all dressed up. I like to share them, and I like to hear what other people think about them.”

WEDNESDAY 22

EXHIBIT: “Paul Strand in Mexico,” an exhibition of over 100 photographic works from the late American photographer visits to Mexico in the 1930s and 1966, at Aperture Gallery, 547 W. 27th St. Gallery hours Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Through Nov. 13. Free.

JAZZ: Percussionist Bobby Sanabria and his Sexteto Ibiano in Throwin’ da’ voodoo down!, with guest Felipe Luciano doing spoken word, at FB Lounge, 172 E. 106th St., 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. No cover.

BOOKS: Presentation of “The New Songs of the Ceiba,” a trilingual anthology of works by contemporary Mayan writers from the Yucatán Peninsula. Edited by the late Carlos Montemayor and Donald Frischmann, at St. John’s University Auditorium, Manhattan Campus, 101 Murray St., 7 p.m., followed by a reception. Free.

FILM: Ígor Iglesias González’s 2009 documentary “Tom Zé: Liberated Astronaut,” about the Brazilian singer/songwriter influential in the Tropicália movement, at 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson St., 7 p.m., .

THURSDAY 23

THEATER: Veteran Puerto Rican actress Johanna Rosaly makes her New York debut in Alberto Adellach’s “Sabina y Lucrecia,” featuring also New York-based actress Eva Cristina Vásquez and directed by Dean Zayas. At Teatro Círculo, 65 E. Fourth St., 8 p.m. Through Oct. 17, .

FOOD: Mexican chef Zarela Martínez gives lecture and cooking demonstration on the relationship between Mexico’s indigenous cultures and corn, 6 p.m., followed by tasting of four dishes. At Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, 1 Bowling Green. Free, RSVP required by emailing NMAI-NYprograms@si.edu

MIX: Mexican singer and composer Juan Pablo Villa continues his exploration of the raw power of voice with the U.S. premiere of the improvisation-heavy concert “La Gruta de Baba,” accompanied by visual artist Arturo López working live in front of the audience. At Lincoln Center?a>??s David Rubenstein Atrium, Broadway between 62nd and 63rd Sts., 8:30 p.m. Free.

EXHIBIT: A selection of Constantino Arias (1920-1991) photographs of Cuba before the revolution are on display at the Center for Cuban Studies, 231 W. 29th St. in Chelsea. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturdays, noon to 6 p.m. Through Oct. 16. Free.

THEATER: Excerpts of composer Xavier Montsalvatge?a>??s “El Gato con Botas” (“Puss in Boots”), featuring Japanese Bunraku puppetry, at the theater at Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Ave. at 89th St., 7:30 p.m., .

JAZZ: Flutist Héctor Nieves and band at FB Lounge, 172 E. 106th St., 8 p.m. No cover.

The Hunts Point produce co-op is back at the negotiating table.

A food fight over rules and fees at the produce market nearly upset the apple cart, but the co-op has resumed talks with the city for a 0 million makeover, thanks to efforts by Bronx officials and a deputy mayor.

“We expect to have an agreement by the end of the year,” said a city Economic Development Corp. spokeswoman.

The Hunts Point Terminal Produce Cooperative Association’s lease on city land runs out in 10 months and it hopes to renovate the ramshackle market complex.

“A new market would allow us to move our produce in and out twice as fast,” said co-op president, Matthew D’Arrigo.

The Hunts Point produce, meat and seafood markets supply food to 30 million people on the East Coast. But Philadelphia has a shiny new produce market that could steal business from the Bronx, said D’Arrigo.

The co-op broke off negotiations with the EDC in June after the Business Integrity Commission – created by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani to root out organized crime in the markets – announced it would adopt a set of tough new rules.

They included higher fees for market licenses, background checks and more. Co-op members faced paying a ,000 license fee, up from 0, a hike Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. called “absurd.”

The rules also threatened to give the BIC landlord-type powers at the market.

Already at odds with the agency over tickets issued to double-parked produce buyers, the co-op balked at BIC’s bid to manage market hours and equipment.

“The produce co-op is good for the Bronx, the city and the state,” said Diaz. “Its members should not feel harassed.”

Concerned that Hunts Point could lose the co-op, which employs 4,000 Bronxites, borough officials asked the BIC to back off.

So did Robert Steel, the new deputy mayor for economic development, said Marlene Cintron, president of the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp. This month, BIC agreed to surrender control over the market’s hours and equipment.

BIC also agreed to stop issuing parking tickets. The higher fees are an ongoing matter of debate, according to co-op lawyers.

“While it is assumed that what BIC does is important, what is more important is that we maintain and support viable businesses in the Bronx,” said Cintron.

BIC’s new rules were not meant to crack down on the co-op, said mayor’s office spokesman Andrew Brent. D’Arrigo called Steel’s help a “shot in the arm” for the market.

“We now have a City Hall that is totally open to business in the Bronx,” said Cintron.

The Bronx congregation that lost its bishop along with the bishop’s wife and four other members in an out-of-town traffic accident was consoled last night by one person who can fully understand its loss.

David Wright’s church in Brooklyn lost its own spiritual leader and the leader’s wife in an out-of-town accident two years ago. His grief was all the more searing because the victims were also his father and mother. The third fatality was his 14-year-old nephew.

“I know what those people are feeling right now,” Wright said before his visit.

One marked difference between the two tragedies was that the Rev. Timothy Wright of the Grace Tabernacle Christian Center initially survived after a drunken driver drove into his car, killing his wife and grandson.

The elder Wright was paralyzed, and among those who reached out to offer comfort and counsel was the family of the late actor Christopher Reeve, who had been consigned to a wheelchair by a horse-riding accident.

“He used to be Superman,” David Wright noted.

The son would not forget the super strength the Reeve family gave him and his family over the nine months before the elder Wright succumbed to his injures.

“To have somebody step forward who knows. …” David Wright said.

After hearing of last week’s tragedy at the Joy Fellowship Christian Assemblies, Wright resolved to bring them the comfort of somebody who knows.

“It brought back memories of my mom and my dad’s accident,” he said Monday.

He also would be going as his father’s 32-year-old successor as pastor of their Brooklyn church. The Rev. David Wright was heartened to see news reports of a service at the Bronx church. The faithful there were still able to praise and even thank the Almighty.

“That’s exactly what they need to do now,” he said. “That’s the same thing that got us through. Their faith in God is what’s going to get them through.”

He knows all too well that keeping your faith can become a struggle when you are struck by ungodly tragedy.

“Why do bad things happen to good people? That’s the big question,” he said. “My mom and my dad, they never did any wrong to anybody.”

The same is being said about Bishop Simon White and his wife, Zelda White, in the Bronx. The big question looms as large there as it did in Brooklyn.

Yet heartbreak and hardship are what gave rise to faith in the first place, what have kept it going even while presenting it with a perpetual challenge.

“If everything was peachy cream every day, there would be no need for faith,” Wright said. “When you go through hard times is when you need faith.”

Without it, hard times just get even harder.

“If you lose your faith, it just destroys you in the inside,” Wright said. “As long as you keep your faith, you know you’ll be okay.”

Wright was traveling from his church to the Bronx to offer proof that faith can indeed prevail. His father’s Grammy-nominated choir is about to release a new CD. The Grace Tabernacle itself is thriving. The older members are adjusting to having the son as a pastor after two decades with the father.

“It took a little bit of getting used to,” Wright said. “You actually watched your pastor grow up. People that used to baby-sit me, now I’m leading them spiritually.”

He hoped his presence at Monday night’s prayer meeting would bring the congregation hope.

“Just let them know there is somebody there that went through that,” he said. “If I got through it, then they can.”

When his turn came to speak, his words were as simple as his message.

“God never says ‘Oops,’” he told the packed church. “God would not have allowed this to happen if we could not handle it.”

mdaly@nydailynews.com