By Dee Richard
Two more weeks of “party time” left and then a hiatus. A week with absolutely nothing happening, at least so it seems as of now. A slow week surely sounds good after this crazy, running-around, non-stop coverage of the local holiday parties. It’s been so busy in Queens that I had to eliminate attending all the city parties I was invited to. “Ho! Ho! Ho!” is starting to wear thin and, being a glutton for punishment in the midst of my busiest time of the year, I decided to volunteer to organize a thank-you party for Frank Padavan. He is 76 and was a senator for 38 years. Do the math — that means he devoted half his life to serving his constituents.
For those of you who still want to attend our non-partisan, non-political party, you still can. Call in your reservation in case your checks don’t quite meet the deadline, at 917-744-0800 or 718-767-6484 as we still have a few tickets left. See you all at the best party of the season. A great big thank you to all who have already bought a ticket to show how much we appreciated Sen. Padavan’s dedication to his community. I guess it’s true when they say if you want to get a nearly impossible job done, ask the busiest person you know.
To get back to the party circuit, on Tuesday evening Warren Schreiber held a holiday party at his Bay Terrace co-op in the Section 1 Recreation Room. A pleasant gathering. On Wednesday evening, the Northeast Queens Republican Club held its annual holiday party at the Reception House in Flushing. The highlight of the buffet dinner was the auction of wrapped mystery gifts, which is a fund-raiser. This year’s guest auctioneer was Alan Laufler. The evening was complete with the appearance of Frank Skala in full regalia as Santa Claus. A fun evening for all.
On Thursday afternoon, the Flushing Chamber of Commerce had its annual holiday luncheon at the Sheraton LaGuardia East. There were no speeches — just a good old-fashioned holiday luncheon party. On Thursday evening, the Queens Tribune held its annual holiday bash at Douglaston Manor. It was a large, fun-filled event. The star of the show was Gayle and Michael Nussbaum’s granddaughter. What an adorable baby and what a great daddy their son turned out to be.
On Friday night, Paul Vallone held his holiday party at his law office on Francis Lewis Boulevard in northeast Queens. The party was great with food, beverages, the Toys for Tots collection, caroling by the children and the sing-along by the adults. In one of the songs, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” Charlie, the baby in the family, had the star role of chiming, “And a Charlie in a pear tree” as the adults went through the song. Charlie really loved it. Everyone at the party was presented as they were leaving with a poinsettia, complements of Queens Garden Nurseries.
Saturday was a Christmas shopping day. Miracle of miracles there were no parties, at least none I was invited to.
Sunday was a triple header. We started off with brunch at the Whitestone home of Debbie Markell. The honoree was Matthew Silverstein. The brunch was a way of thanking him for dropping out of the race for Ann-Margaret Carrozza’s seat. The Democrats decided that if they all got behind one candidate, they had a better chance of taking the seat rather than having a half-dozen candidates vying for it. Ed Braunstein, the winner, personally thanked Matt for being such a stand-up guy and pledged his support for any future position Matt might run for.
The party was the Queens version of New York City’s 400. Some of those present were John Liu and his son Joey, Braunstein, Toby Stavisky, Claire Shulman, Trudy La Forgia, Honey Miller, Kay Glover, Mimi Burnham, Elio Forcina, Rob Speranza and Dan Halloran — totaling about 60 people.
The second stop was an open house cocktail party at Linda Dasabato’s home in Malba. She had just spent a fortune renovating and redecorating her home. What better way to show it off than when it is beautifully decorated for the holidays? It looks gorgeous. Her party was catered by the Evans Co. It did a great job. Live background music was provided by a DJ playing a keyboard. It was a lovely, elegant, understated party.
Our third stop were the Christmas festivities at the Queens Garden Center in Whitestone, complete with Santa, lots of food and a magnificent toy train display
I look forward to your voice mails at 718-767-6484, faxes at 718-746-0066 and e-mails at deerrichard@aol.com.
Don’t forget to check out the Focus on Queens page.
Till next week, Dee.
