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QC02052015

74 The Queens Courier • buzz • FEBRUARY 5, 2015 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com victoria’s secrets VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS vschneps@gmail.com tweet me @vschneps Powerful partying Geraldo Rivera, center, with Attorney Gerald Shargel and his wife Terry, an art dealer. Shargel is defending former state Sen. Malcolm Smith Roseanne Scotto and husband, Louis Ruggiero, an attorney in Jackson Heights Geraldo Rivera and wife Erica Rivera Marty Berman and Al Puro Dynamic $1000 off Lumineers $500 off Invisalign DENTAL WORK Free Whitening included the inViSiBle WAy to Some excluSionS Apply StrAighten teeth third generation dentist 175-15 Jamaica avenue, Jamaica 718-297-4100 • 718-297-4106 I feel like I’ve been hit by lightning! If any of you have been watching Geraldo Rivera on Monday nights on “Celebrity Apprentice,” you know he is raising serious money for his favorite cause — Life’s WORC. I’m thrilled to tell you it is the organization I founded 44 years ago to help my first-born daughter, Lara. We are already the recipient of $560,000 with potential for more to come. I met Geraldo in 1971 when my organization was sending volunteers to Willowbrook State School in Staten Island. Every weekend we had busloads of young people working to help on the wards there. We also raised money to buy things needed for the 5,400 people living there. Geraldo’s news coverage catapulted the parents to file a federal class action law suit, and the success of it changed forever the way people with disabilities are cared for. Group homes opened and day programs were created. Willowbrook closed and is now the College of Staten Island! From the day he crashed the walls and entered the inhumane wards, Geraldo vowed he would see the world change for these people. And has he! For 27 years, we have held the Geraldo Rivera Golf Outing, raising over $3 million for Life’s WORC. Now we are opening the Family Center for Autism, a program for families with needs for their children after school in the evenings, weekends and holidays. Every penny Geraldo wins will go to support the new services. On Friday I taped a segment for “Celebrity Apprentice” to explain what Life’s WORC is and our relationship to Geraldo. He came to our headquarters in Garden City and we visited a few of the programs we are running. We both cried as we watched a teacher playing her guitar in the music program as each child with their own staff person sang, “Touch your toes,” a basic skill that the 6-year-olds are learning. Finally, children are getting the help they need to be the most that they can be! Then a few hours later I went from tears to joy celebrating Geraldo’s wife Erica’s birthday at the Monkey Bar in Manhattan. The crowd of what seemed like hundreds of people included Rosanna Scotto and her husband Louis Ruggiero, who turns out to be an attorney in Jackson Heights. At another table was Greg Kelly, who remembered the wonderful time he had at our Top Women in Business networking event where we honored him as the Best Man of the Year. I also sat with John Catsimatidis, his beautiful wife Margo and Curtis Sliwa, sitting next to Rita Cosby. I was impressed to meet Al Primo, who originated Eyewitness News, which is still number one in the ratings. I was happy to see Geraldo’s accountant, Neil Roth, who has been with Geraldo for decades and has attended every Geraldo golf outing! On Thursday night we held our massively successful Rising Stars event, honoring 40 people under 40 at Terrace on the Park. The love and goodwill and joy in the room was due to my events team, which was led brilliantly by my dear Demetra. To close out the weekend I was delighted to be invited by my new friend Charles Chan to a pre-Chinese New Year party at Leonard’s. We were joined by Seth and Tracey Kupferberg, Claire Shulman and her sister Ruth Wagner and the Americana Manhasset Shopping Center owners, Frank and Rita Cassagna, their president, Deidre Major, and her husband Tony. A bonus was seeing the powerful and wonderful Congresswoman Grace Meng and beloved City Councilman Peter Koo. It was a remarkable week of power parties! Charles and Daphne Chan, Tracy and Seth Kupferberg, Deidre Major, Councilman Peter Koo, Tony Major, Congresswoman Grace Meng and Claire Schulman


QC02052015
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