Mineola ‘Night on the Town’ Raises Over $70,000 for Leukemia Research

One night near closing time at , owner Tony Lobrano, Harry Zapiti and were along in the restaurant having a discussion over drinks. The topic of conversation was a particular problem that Lobrano was having.

In his annual “” fundraiser he had decided to honor former state Sen. Michael Balboni “to give it a more substantial credibility to our event.”

As the night approached, Lubrano realized he had to present the former representative of the seventh senatorial district with some type of award.

Lubrano and Zapiti had looked online and through several award catalogues catalogues “and everything at first looked like a bowling trophy or something and we said ‘this is silly, what are we going to call it?’,” Lubrano said, finally calling Martins to come over for some advice, being that the current representative from the district was going to be presenting the award to the Republican that preceded him in the seat.

“He’s really quick and to the point,” Lubrano said, recalling that Martins asked why they were doing the event. “I said ‘to raise money for leukemia,’ he goes ‘why?’”

Lubrano then related the tale that his father was originally diagnosed with leukemia and given 18 months to live and it was the research that game his father an extra 15 years “that we never expected so I’m doing this to pay back a debt that I feel I owe.”

Instantly the award had a name – the Pasquale Lubrano Community Service Award. Now all that was left was the type of award model.

Pasquale’s first restaurant – La Bussola – was in Glen Cove, located behind a parking garage with the only entryway being a side street that wound around the structure.

“So when he first saw it he said ‘gee, people are going to need a compass just to find the place, so in Italian a compass is a bussola so that’s what we called it,” Lubrano said.

Stumbling upon a large crystal-like award, Lubrano noticed that it had a compass embedded in the slanted top, in other words, a bussola.

“He says ‘this is meant to be’ and we made this the award,” Lubrano said of Martins’ contribution that night.

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“Pasquale was a husband, a father, a businessman, a person who cared for his family and a person who cared about his community and never said no,” Martins said the night of the event on May 3 as he introduced Balboni, who’s “represented Mineola and northwestern Nassau County with distinction, and like Pasquale Lubrano, a person who does not know how to say no.”

Balboni spent 18 years in public service, eight of which were in the state assembly and the remaining 10 in the state senate before being appointed to the post of homeland security chief for New York State by then-Governor Elliot Spitzer.

“As a recovering politician, when I see a room like this, I think to myself ‘darn, why isn’t this a fundraiser for me?’ and then I realize it’s a fundraiser for a much bigger, better cause,” Balboni said, accepting the award. “The one thing I have learned is you can’t do anything by yourself. I know how busy all of you are, I know how many times people ask for money for charitable causes they want you to contribute to and yet you picked tonight.”

Raising over $70,000 for leukemia and lymphoma research, the ballroom and dining hall of was filled with numerous restaurants from around Mineola as well as a silent auction and live entertainment from New York’s Most Dangerous Big Band, Broadway’s Fab 4 dancers Libby Marshall, Darcy Wright, Max Demers and Phillip Drennan as well as master of ceremonies Gina Giordan.

Balboni told a story to the crowd of a part of North Shore Hospital back in 1960 where a friend of his applied for a job on the floor who in lymphoma/leukemia and the death of a young boy named Johnny over the course of the summer with whom he’d become friendly. After Johnny’s passing, “swore to himself he’d never get attached again,” only to befriend Billy, who was still alive when the summer ended.

“That was 50 years ago and in that period of time the research, the dedication of the doctors had worked so that’s no longer the case and childhood leukemia is not the killer it once was,” Balboni said. “And when you now go into those units, the empty beds mean the kids have gone home. That’s why we’re here tonight, that’s what we’re doing this for, so that we can keep the families together and continue to provide hope and research so we beat this killer. That only happens if you believe an empty bed should signal the start of a life, not the end of one.”