Great Neck Arts Center & Gold Coast International Film Festival
Celebrate the Arts at Gala 2012

Wednesday, October 24, 2012, 6:00-11:00pm
Oheka Castle, Long Island

Honoring Michael Lamoretti Man of the Year • Author Nelson DeMille Gold Coast Legend Award
Congressman Gary Ackerman Honorary Founders Award

With a performance by KT Sullivan, who is receiving the Artist of Distinction: Music Award

Join us for a cocktail reception, silent auction, dinner, award presentations, and performances.
All proceeds benefit the educational programs at the Great Neck Arts Center's School for the Arts.

Individual tickets: $275 
For reservation form and sponsorship levels, please click here.
For journal ad rates, download form here.

Gala Chair Jill Lamoretti • Co-Chairs Beverly & Attilio Petrocelli
Honorary Co-Chairs Terri Carr Muran and Eileen & Alan Sarroff

For more information, or if you have any questions, please call Ronni at (516) 829-2570.

Gala 2012 Honorees

Michael Lamoretti - Man of the Year

For more than twenty years, Michael Lamoretti has been the Vice President of Real Estate Operations for United Capital Corp., a diversified and publicly traded company located in Great Neck, New York. United Capital has more than 500 employees and a national portfolio of real estate investments, hotel operations and manufacturing subsidiaries. Michael is intricately involved in the daily operations of the company’s real estate investments in more than 150 properties with over 5 million rentable square feet.

Mr. Lamoretti is a graduate of Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire. He is also an active member of the community serving on many boards and committees including one that is dear to his heart, The Great Neck Arts Center. “The Arts Center is a tremendous asset to our community and beyond. It serves over 15,000 underprivileged children and adults throughout Long Island at little or no cost to them and their families. My children, who are much more fortunate, have enjoyed classes and programs there for years. Whether it was watching them in an acting class or seeing their smiles as they showed me a piece of pottery they made I feel that the arts center is a beautiful place and should be embraced, not ignored.”

Michael and his wife of 20 years, Jill, live in Great Neck, New York with their three children, Briana, Vanessa and Attilio.

Congressman Gary Ackerman - Honorary Founders Award

Congressman Gary Ackerman is presently serving his fifteenth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Ackerman represents the Fifth Congressional District of New York, which encompasses parts of the New York City Borough of Queens and the North Shore of Long Island, including west and northeast Queens and northern Nassau County.

Born in Brooklyn, Gary Ackerman was raised in Flushing, Queens.  He attended local public schools, Brooklyn Technical High School and was graduated from Queens College in 1965.  After college, Congressman Ackerman became a NYC teacher.  Ackerman’s second career move occurred in 1970 when he left teaching and founded a weekly community newspaper called “The Flushing Tribune” which soon became “The Queens Tribune”.

Gary Ackerman was first elected to public office, the NYS Senate, in 1978.  In 1983, he was elected to Congress in a special election. Congressman Ackerman has secured millions of dollars for Queens and Long Island, particularly in the areas of the environment, education, healthcare, economy, infrastructure, law enforcement and overall quality of life. Ackerman has also authored numerous federal laws governing mad cow disease, war criminals, postal measures, healthcare, anti-terrorism issues and the regulation of the corporate, bank and financial sectors, among many other initiatives.

As a constituent organization, located in Congressman Ackerman’s district, the Great Neck Arts Center is grateful to him for his constant friendship, counsel and support.  He and his staff are and always have been aware of the important issues facing their constituents and always do what they can to help.

Author Nelson DeMille - Gold Coast Legend Award

Nelson DeMille is the author of such bestselling novels as The Gold Coast, The General's Daughter, Plum Island, The Lion's Game, Wild Fire, The Gate House, and The Lion.

Nelson Richard DeMille was born in New York City on August 23, 1943 to and moved as a child with his family to Long Island. Mr. DeMille spent three years at Hofstra University, then joined the Army and attended Officer Candidate School. He was a First Lieutenant in the United States Army (1966-69) and saw action as an infantry platoon leader with the First Cavalry Division in Vietnam. He was decorated with the Air Medal, Bronze Star, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.

DeMille returned to the States and went back to Hofstra University where he received his degree in Political Science and History. He has three children, Lauren, Alexander, and James, and still lives on Long Island.

DeMille's earlier books were NYPD detective novels. His first major novel was By the Rivers of Babylon, published in 1978 and still in print, as are all his succeeding novels. He is a member of The Authors Guild, the Mystery Writers of America, and American Mensa. He holds three honorary doctorates: Doctor of Humane Letters from Hofstra University, Doctor of Literature from Long Island University, and Doctor of Humane Letters from Dowling College.

Singer KT Sullivan - Artist of Distinction: Music

KT Sullivan  is one of the  most in- demand singers in cabaret. She  starrs annually at the Oak Room of New York’s Algonquin Hotel and also at the Neue Galerie’s Café Sabarsky on Fifth Avenue.  She  appeared at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC with Brian Stokes Mitchell in “Broadway Today.”  And is scheduled to appear in London’s newest cabaret   Crazy Coq.

KT has headlined at Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, Lincoln Center. She was a guest star on Garrison Keillor’s “Prairie Home Companion” and has seven albums on the DRG label, available through  CDBABY. Her latest is “Timeless Tunes.”

Liza Minnelli presented KT with the Manhattan Association of Cabarets’ Outstanding Female Vocalist Award and  KT was named one of the top 100 Irish Americans by Irish America magazine. In March 2012, she became Artistic Director of the Mabel Mercer Foundation: producers of the  annual Cabaret Convention.