For the third straight year, veteran reporter Magee Hickey is gathering many colleagues for a musical fundraiser.

Hickey is giving back to the community in a personal way. Money raised will support the Lawrence F. Hickey Center for Child Development in the Bronx, part of Astor Services. Students attending that Dyre Avenue school range in age from three and five.

Hickey’s late father co-founded the school. The senior Hickey died three years ago at age 91, just weeks before the first fund-raising event.

“We close each show singing a song he loved, The Very Thought of You,” Hickey says.

Her dad wasn’t an educator. His background was in concrete.

“He developed the property in the Bronx for this school,” Hickey says.

Mr. Hickey’s “major” may have been construction, but he earned a “minor” in altruism. The elder Hickey was head of his church’s parish council and neighborhood coalition for shelter.

“A nun from a nearby school asked for his help in the building because it was a hole in the wall, and they knew my father had a history in construction,” Hickey recalls. “So he started volunteering at that school [Lexington Avenue and 67th Street] and then word spread that there was this Larry Hickey who liked to help out at special needs schools.”

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Hickey prepares for her first NYC Marathon

“She would love that I’m doing this in her memory to raise money for other people, because her life was always about doing for other people.”

With those words, WPIX/Channel 11 reporter Magee Hickey is preparing to run her first New York City Marathon. She formed a Channel 11 team to run on behalf of the American Cancer Society. Hickey’s mother Jean died of colon cancer five years ago.

While the New York native takes pride in exploring news experiences, a 26.2 mile jaunt across the five boroughs definitely goes to a different level.

“They stress your first marathon is not about speed, because if you run too quickly in the beginning then you’ll have nothing left for the back half of it,” Hickey tells FishbowlNY. “A lot of people get injured. Lots of people are limping and never run again.”

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Magee Hickey, the well-known, red-headed reporter who left WCBS/Channel 2 in May after her contract wasn’t renewed, has joined WPIX.

A WPIX spokeswoman says Hickey started at Channel 11 on Friday night’s PIX News at Ten. The Daily News says Hickey will be an important fill-in for vacationers during the summer months.

In a strange twist of fate, Hickey is reunited with WPIX news director Bill Carey. He was at the helm at WCBS when Hickey was there, and ultimately fired her in 1996 as part of “Black Friday,” in which seven high-profile staffers, including Tony Guida, John Johnson, and Michele Marsh were sent packing.  

Hickey has amassed several decades of experience in New York. Along with her two stints at WCBS, she is also familiar to viewers from covering stories for WNEW/Channel 5 (Now-WNYW), WNBC, and WABC.

Perhaps you missed it last week–Magee Hickey, the longtime WCBS/Channel 2 reporter did not have her contract renewed. Hickey, a New York mainstay for three decades, was in her second stint at WCBS.

Hickey, who refused FishbowlNY an interview, told the Daily News last week, “I wanted to stay there, but it was a choice others made about me.”

Hickey had stops at WNEW/Channel 5 (pre-WNYW days), WNBC, and WABC.

She also worked at WCBS from 1994 to 1996, when she was fired along with six other on-air colleagues. The “massacre” as it became known, was orchestrated by then-news director (now WPIX news director) Bill Carey.

Hickey, though, returned to Channel 2 in 2003.

Hickey tells the Daily News that she’s exploring other oppportunities.