PUBLISHED BY MOSHOLU PRESERVATION CORPORATION

Community Center’s Big Night

In the largest turnout since launching their annual fund-raising gala four years ago, 280 friends and supporters of the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center packed the Faculty Dining Room at Lehman College last week for the event known as “Bursting With Pride.”

Honorees included Andrew Berkman, who is from the neighborhood and has served on the group’s board since 1978, and Charles Balancia, a senior vice president at Montefiore Medical Center and native Bronxite, who got his start at Montefiore in 1958 as an assistant engineer shoveling coal in the boiler room.

Andrew Cuomo, who is running for attorney general this year, introduced Balancia. Cuomo got to know Balancia when he was mayor of Harrison, NY and Cuomo was pursuing an affordable housing project there. The project was unpopular, Cuomo, said but Balancia stood firm.

“I have never seen a truer test of leadership … than what Charlie Balancia taught me in Harrison,” Cuomo said. “Charlie Balancia stands against the wind.”

Balancia and his staff have helped the Center with engineering and building needs over the years.

The event netted $110,000 for the Center, which serves 25,000 people a year at 14 different locations in programs that range from Head Start to senior programs.

MMCC was founded in 1942.
– Jordan Moss

 

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