Taminent Dems Honor Three, Celebrate 78th Anniversary

Photo Jason D. Antos Members of the Taminent Regular Democratic Club and the club’s 2009 honorees gathered at Riccardo’s by the Bridge for the club’s 78th anniversary October 31. (L. to r.): Club President Edward Babor, First Vice President Theodore Kasapis, Assemblymember Michael Gianaris, 2009 Guests of Honor Leonard T. D’Amico, Domenico Pinto and Bhupendra R. Patel M.D., state Senator George Onorato, Athena Onorato and Queens County District Attorney Richard Brown. The Taminent Regular Democratic Club, Inc. held its 78th annual dinner dance last Saturday evening, October 31 at Riccardo’s by the Bridge. The gala event celebrated three distinguished guests who were honored for their outstanding community service: Leonard T. D’Amico, Bhupendra Patel, M.D. and Domenico Pinto.

D’Amico, a lifelong resident of Queens, is a principle in the D & F Development Group, LLC. D’Amico, along with his partner, Peter Florey, is developing and building several projects in the metropolitan area, some of which include local charitable organizations, which provide new housing for seniors with low incomes.

Patel is currently chief of the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai Queens and an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He is the founder of the Nargis Dutt Memorial Foundation, which has provided more than a million dollars worth of medical equipment to various institutes in India for the treatment of cancer. “As an immigrant from India who came to this country to make a better world, this is a great honor for me,” Patel said.

Pinto, president of the Ferrari Driving School, has helped thousands of new immigrants from all parts of the world, many with little or no knowledge of the English language, to obtain their drivers’ licenses for cars, tractor-trailers, buses and trucks. His program also provides lessons for individuals recently released or paroled from prison or completing a substance abuse treatment program. “I am delighted to have been chosen as a 2009 honoree,” said Pinto. “America is the land of opportunity and good fortune.”

State Senator George Onorato, executive leader of the organization, was introduced by his wife and committee co-chairperson, Athena Onorato. “Tonight’s honorees prove that good things come in threes,” Onorato said as he welcomed the large gathering. He then introduced City Councilmember Peter F. Vallone Jr., who started off the evening’s program.

“I would like to welcome everyone here tonight and to officially announce that I have been promoted from graffiti public enemy number one to the anti-graffiti master,” Vallone Jr. jokingly said of his position against graffiti in Queens. Vallone Jr. turned the microphone over to his father, former City Council Speaker Peter F. Vallone Sr., who received a very warm reception. In anticipation of the upcoming election, Vallone Sr. spoke of the importance of voting and voter turnout, expressing his unhappiness at this year’s primary, which saw the lowest voter turnout in recent history. “On election day, the worst thing you can do is stay home. The best thing you can do is vote,” he proclaimed. “Our most precious right is our right to vote—the right to choose who leads us. We’re the people who are supposed to be in control of this country.”

Assemblymember Michael Gianaris also encouraged those present to get out to vote.

Dinner was served after the awards ceremony. Dancing to the accompaniment of a live band followed.

The Taminent Regular Democratic Club, Inc. is located at 33-09 23rd Ave. in Astoria. Men’s meetings are the second Thursday of every month; women’s meetings are the first Wednesday of every month and joint meetings occur on the fourth Thursday of every month. For more information, call 718-721- 6334.