By Dee Richard
The results are in and we have a new president?elect: U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D?Ill). It is a historic event in that for the first time we have an African?American elected to the highest office in the land.
A week ago Sunday was the busiest day of the week, with seven events that I knew of. The first we were able to cover was for the Association for Neurologically Brain Injured Children, an organization dedicated to improving the life of these children.
This was its 46th annual Testimonial Luncheon held at Russo’s on the Bay in Howard Beach. This year’s Excellence in Public Service Award was presented to state Sen. Frank Padavan (R?Bellerose) with the Humanitarian Award going to Frank Parisi, director of the Bernard Fineson Developmental Disabilities Services Office. ANIBIC is a wonderful organization supported by dedicated officers and directors.
The next event was a luncheon held at the Roma View. This was the Italian Charities Annual Luncheon and Awards Ceremony. We had to leave before the distribution of their journal and the listing of awards and honorees, but we shall provide them to you as we get them in next week’s column.
The one honoree we do know of was our friend Michael Ricatto of “Better Leadership America” fame. Mike seems to be participating in community events once more, which is a good thing, as he has much to offer the organizations he is involved with.
The next event was a “senatorial” Meet the Candidates at the Korean Village in Flushing. The incumbents were Toby Stavisky (D?Whitestone), who was challenged by Republican Peter Koo. Congratulations to Toby as she emerged victorious and condolences to Koo, who ran a commendable race.
Padavan is still in a tight race with City Councilman Jim Gennaro (D?Fresh Meadows). The Padavan?Gennaro race seems one of the most interesting ones to watch, but the results have not been finalized as of yet. It is too close to call and they still have to count the absentee ballots. We understand two voting machines had broken down in Whitestone and their votes must be tallied and counted, too. The Padavan camp says he squeaked by and won; the Gennaro camp claims they won. We shall have to wait and see.
The other Sunday events were the Totten Trot, an annual event at Fort Totten supported by the Bayside Historical Society and the Polish American Congress Annual Awards Luncheon at the “Polonaise” Catering facility in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. There were also two biker events, one in Howard Beach and a Hells Angels one in Carlstadt, N.J. Both runs were in support of their annual Toys for Tots programs.
We saved the best for last: Jimmy Kalodis’ “Name Day” Celebration at Terrace on the Park. Jimmy and his wife, Georgia, invited more than 1,000 of his associates. Since Jimmy is the proprietor of Terrace on the Park, it was a fabulous feast. The grand finale was the breaking of dishes. For those who liked dancing, two bands provided American and Greek music for the evening.
On Nov. 4, we attended as many parties as we could. We started off with Assemblywoman?elect Grace Meng’s at the Buffet East in Flushing. From there we went to Peter Koo’s event at the Fire & Ice Restaurant, also in Flushing. From there, it was off to Padavan’s event at the Reception House in Flushing.
We were supposed to go to the Woodhaven House in Rego Park to attend state Sen. Serf Maltese’s (R?Glendale) event in the interim, but after Maltese conceded to Councilman Joe Addabbo (D?Howard Beach), under the circumstances we decided not to stop by and proceeded to Russo’s on the Bay in Howard Beach. By the time we got there, the victory party was winding down, but we got a photo of Addabbo with his mother, Grace, and Frank Galluscio, who has been mentioned as a future possible successor to Joe.
While going into Russo’s, we ran into Albert Baldeo, who was a great help to Addabbo during this past campaign.
Congratulations to all the winners, including Elizabeth Crowley, who defeated Councilman Anthony Como (R?Middle Village) for his seat and condolences to those who lost.
That’s it for this week.
I look forward to hearing from you with information on people, parties or politics or gossip.
I also like receiving your voice mail at 718?767?6484, faxes at 718?746?0066 and e?mails at deerrichard@aol.com.
Till next week, Dee.
