Lincoln Bicentennial Dinner
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Queens Village, NY
For Immediate Release:
February 6, 2009
For more information, contact:
Jim Trent: 718-343-8830 jtrent8830@aol.com
Phil Orenstein 917-620-2663 maduroman@att.net
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg joining American war hero, LTC Allen West, in honoring Lincoln Essay Winners at Queens Fete
Queens Village, NY: Mayor Michael Bloomberg will attend the Lincoln Bicentennial Dinner on Feb 8at Antun’s of Queens Village, to honor the winners of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Essay Contest.
This non-partisan event sponsored by the historic Queens Village Republican Club, the oldest in America, features an award ceremony for the winners of the competition involving schools throughout New York City. The winning students, who will be awarded $500 savings bonds, their entire families and teachers, will be attending the dinner gratis as special guests of the Club. Along with the Mayor, Assemblywoman Barbara Clark(D-Queens Village) Senator Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose), Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-Jamaica) and other public officials will be presenting the honors. Glen Oaks Village Owners Corp. and their president Robert Friedrich, and Dr. Dolores M. Fernandez, president of Hostos Community College have provided generous funds for the students.
John Catsimatidis has pledged funds for the award ceremony as well. Catsimatidis, who spoke at last year’s Lincoln Dinner about his ascent from early poverty as a new immigrant to the summit of the American dream, is a potential candidate for Mayor.
The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Essay Contest is a Social Studies/United States History project for Elementary, Middle and High School students.
Endorsed by the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission (ALBC) established by Congress in 2000, this project endeavors to enrich the study about our greatest American president and allow students to discover what it means to be an American in the 21st century by studying Lincoln’s legacies of democracy, equality and freedom.
This educational project is the official Queens Bicentennial Event and part of the nationwide Bicentennial commemoration of the birth of our 16th President (1809-2009).
The competition had students researching and writing essays on the topic: “What Does the Life and Legacy of Abraham Lincoln Mean to Me?” Several of the jubilant student winners will read excerpts from their essays and exalt in a photo op with New York’s “Education Mayor” Michael Bloomberg.
Mayor Bloomberg will also participate in the honor ceremonies for some other notable figures at the Lincoln Dinner. The Educator of the Year award will go to New York’s most distinguished education reformer, Hon. Herman Badillo, who was the first Puerto Rican to be elected to Congress and to the office of Bronx Borough President. As Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the City University of New York, Badillo led a successful effort to end open enrollment and revamp the curriculum turning CUNY into a world class institution from a dismal diploma mill.
The recipient of the Lincoln Bicentennial Award, Decorated War Hero, Lt. Col. Allen West, will deliver the keynote address of the dinner. He ran for Congress in Florida, winning 45% of the vote and has been lauded as one of the great black conservative voices in America today, and as new RNC Chairman Michael Steel put it: “a great man with the stature of Abe Lincoln.” LTC West will also address the Bicentennial topic: “What Does the Life and Legacy of Abraham Lincoln Mean to Me?”
The Party of Nixon, Dole, Giuliani, Bloomberg and McCain is a disgrace. It died this year because it betrayed its members. Anyone who supported these clowns should be thrown out of the party.