Tickets still available for Mayor’s Ball
Tickets are still available for Norwalk’s 2019 Mayor’s Ball, which will be held at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 25, at Serafina at the Italian Center in Stamford.
Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling has chosen Literacy Volunteers and the Norwalk Domestic Violence Crisis Center as recipients of proceeds from the the ball, whcih started under Mayor Frank J. Esposito and now a nonprofit charitable institution. The benefit event is held each January.
Literacy Volunteers, a member of ProLiteracy America, serves approximately 400 students from more than 30 countries each month. Volunteer tutors and students work together in small groups at least two hours a week. The roughly 60 tutors teach classes in English as a Foreign Language, Basic Literacy and Citizenship Training, free or charge and regardless of a student’s immigration status.
The Domestic Violence Crisis Center, a nonprofit organization with offices and separate safe houses in Stamford and Norwalk, provides crisis intervention, safety planning, and counseling in both English and Spanish to persons experiencing domestic abuse. The center helps all people with the goal of rebuilding self-esteem and moving them toward a more independent existence. The Norwalk office, located on River Street, offers counseling, legal services, English as a Second Language classes, and even toys for children.
The crisis center helps people in Norwalk, Stamford, New Canaan, Darien, Westport, Weston and Wilton. In 2017, the center saw more than 3,700 victims of domestic violence in those seven towns.
Reservations with payment for the 2019 Mayor’s Ball will be accepted until Jan. 18, 2019, or until the venue sells out. Tickets are $150 per person. Tables of 10 can also be reserved. Checks should be made payable to the “Norwalk Community Benefit Fund.”
To reserve a seat, call Maritza Alvarado at 203854-7950. To donate a silent auction item, call Sally Johnson, executive assistant to the mayor, at 203-854-7707. The major portion of ball proceeds come from silent auction donations. Tax-deductible contributions to the ball can be made at any time.