By Madina Toure
Northeast Queens residents seeking to get information about events in the area now have a place where they can get all that rundown.
State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) announced Friday he was launching a Northeast Queens Community Calendar that will include information on events in the area. The free public calendar, which went live on Tuesday morning, is on Avella’s New York State Senate webpage at www.nysenate.gov/senator/tony-avella.
After attending numerous events, including a holiday fair in College Point last week, Avella realized that his district — Whitestone, College Point, Douglaston, Little Neck, Fresh Meadows, Malba, Hollis Hills, Bay Terrace, Auburndale, Oakland Gardens and Flushing — could benefit from a platform that would help organizations promote their events and help families know what events are going on in their areas.
“We have a very active civic, religious, fraternal activity in my Senate district and I go to a lot of events and they’re great events, but they’re poorly attended because it’s hard for the individual groups to do outreach,” he said.
Residents and organizations can submit their events to nequeenscommunitycalendar@gmail.com. Avella’s staff reviews the events, which are then posted in the calendar. The events must be open to the public.
The calendar is yet another initiative that Avella has undertaken to further connect with his constituents. Last week he mailed out a check list consisting of 20 civic-related problems and one problem the councilman has not considered. Voters check off whichever problems are relevant to their area.
He said that this is contrary to other lawmakers’ newsletters, where the focus is less on the politician and more on the constituents.
“Not only does it help individual constituents get some of their problems resolved, but it also gives me an indication of what area-wide problems there are,” he said.
Reach reporter Madina Toure by e-mail at mtoure@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4566.
