Why Didn’t Senator Gounardes Invite the Seniors From St. Ephrem’s Friendship Club to the Prom?
Our community pays a lot of property taxes. No one wants to hear that seniors are not receiving services that other seniors throughout NYC are receiving.
And we definitely don’t want to hear that seniors in out area have been left out of celebrations with their friends!
One member of the Friendship Club at St. Ephrem’s shared that the club didn’t receive tickets to the June 20th prom event and that this senior group doesn’t receive any funding. *If they had funding, they could throw their own Summer celebration.
Due to gerrymandering, Alexa Aviles is the NYC Council Representative for that location on Bay Ridge Parkway. This Council representative doesn’t have a prom event for seniors.
Council representative Aviles funded several senior groups in her district, but didn’t allot any money to the senior group in Dyker Heights!
During election season, Aviles will want to take pictures with cute seniors for her campaign flyers .
Senator Andrew Gounardesis the state senator for this senior center’s location. Gounardes co-sponsors the prom with Justin Brannan, Why didn’t Senator Gounardes invite seniors from this club?
The senior prom event was started in 2000 by Vincent Gentile and Peter Abbate, the elected leaders back then. (Info) Seniors have a luncheon and dance at the Dyker Beach Golf Course.
Gounardes is more of a social media politician and isn’t present in the community. Andrew was unresponsive when a bird was locked in a cannabis store in Bay Ridge last week. In the Fall, the picture-taking politician will be looking for votes.
Other senior groups received tickets to the prom from Andrew Gounardes. The Bay Ridge Center has 50 tickets. (See graphic below)
Why isn’t the Friendship Club at St. Ephrem’s receiving funds from the elected representatives? Many other groups throughout the city are!
A search through NYC Council’s spending shows four pages of senior clubs receiving funds. (Search here) Here are some:
All these clubs receiving money are able to purchase items for their club (exercise equipment, computers, etc.) and run classes and special events to give everyone things to look forward to!
Stein Senior Club on East 23rd Street in Manhattan received $55,000 from NYC Council members Powers and Rivera. (Source)
One friendship club at 11 Sampson Avenue in Staten Island received five payments of $8,333 – for a total of $41,665 from NYC Council’s funds last year:
Senator Andrew Gounardes does not share how money for our district is spent. He gave a $50,000 check to an antigun group in Manhattan. When a teenager was shot and killed in Brooklyn last Summer, not group called for justice. (Info and photo)
Thank you to our neighbor who spoke out for his organization and our neighbors in this community!
Hugs,
marlene
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