The Taminent Regular Democratic Club held its 78th annual dinner dance recently at Riccardo’s by the Bridge in Astoria, honoring three distinguished guests for their outstanding service to the community, Leonard D’Amico, Dr. Bhupendra Patel, and Domenico Pinto.
D’Amico, a native of Queens, has made a career of developing high-quality, affordable housing, especially for seniors, in cooperation with charitable groups. He is the son of Queens County Commissioner of Jurors Gloria D’Amico, although as City Councilmember Peter Vallone observed, “Tonight, Gloria is ‘Lenny’s mom.’”
Patel is Chief of Medicine at Mount Sinai Queens, an assistant professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in Manhattan and the founder of the Nargis Dutt Memorial Foundation. His foundation has given more than $1 million in medical equipment to cancer institutes in his native India.
Pinto, a native of Italy, is president of the Ferrari Driving School. His school has helped innumerable immigrants become licensed drivers and find a way to make their living. He also established a program to provide driving lessons for parolees, or people completing a substance abuse program or prison term.
