By Helen Klein
With Mayor Michael Bloomberg the keynote speaker, the upcoming Friends United Block Association (FUBA) dinner dance is likely to be a crowded event. The dance is scheduled to take place Sunday, June 5, from 6 to 10 p.m., at the Glen Terrace, 5313 Avenue N. Tickets for the event, which is being held to commemorate the organization’s ninth anniversary, cost $75 per adult, and $50 per child. “It’s going to be fun,” noted Gardy Brazela, FUBA’s president. “We always have a good function.” Among those to be honored at the gala evening, are Lesley Craddock, owner of S & L Industries; Barry Friedman, the chief executive officer of Four Seasons Nursing Home; Alan Mathis, the chief executive officer of Lower East Side Service Center; John Voght, regional director of White Castle; Maria Penaherrera, the principal of Public School 114; and Joel Rubenfeld, the principal of Public School 66. According to Brazela, all the money raised at the event will be used to fund FUBA’s after-school program, which is held at P.S. 114, 1077 Remsen Avenue, as well as across the street, in FUBA’s office, where a computer lab is set up. “Last year, we had a profit of $10,000,” Brazela recalled. “We are hoping this year we can do better.” He said that he expected attendance at the event to be, “Close to 200 people, or more. “It’s going to be much better than the previous year,” Brazela added. “Since there’s a mayoral election, we expect all the candidates to be there, so people will come out.” Besides the opportunity to meet and greet politicos, there will be musical entertainment at the event, said Brazela, in the form of two opera singers, who performed at last year’s dinner, as well. “We are going to give people something different for their money,” he remarked. “This is tuff you could go to Manhattan and pay $150 to see, and you are getting it here for $75.” “We want the community at large to come out and support us,” added Paul Wheatley, the organization’s vice president. “Everything is going to a good cause, our youth. They are our future.” For further information on the dinner dance, call 718-649-6538. Checks can be sent to FUBA, P.O. Box 360-491, Canarsie Station, Brooklyn, NY 11236-3226.
