By Howard Koplowitz
The $75 per head sit-down dinner starts with a 3 p.m. cocktail hour and will feature speeches from Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan, the only Republican DA in the city; Dennis Walcott, deputy mayor; and Cambria Heights resident and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa.The club will also honor its former president, Harvey Moder, with a lifetime achievement award. He is currently on the club's board of trustees. Moder helped start the Queens Village Hollis Bellerose Volunteer Ambulance Corps and was a past president of the Queens Village Braddock Civic Association, according to his wife, Mary Moder. She spoke on his behalf because he suffered a heart attack and stroke, making speaking difficult.”He was very pleased” when he heard in December that he was receiving the lifetime achievement award, Mary Moder said.Moder also established the Queens Village Youth Marching Band more than 20 years ago, which consisted of students from various schools. The band played locally but also traveled as far as Indianapolis, Mary Moder said. It disbanded in 1999 due to a lack of volunteers. The Queens Village man was also active in the Boy Scouts, where he trained scoutmasters, the Queens Reform Church, where he was an elder and the American Legion, where he served as commander of both the county and Suffolk, Nassau and Queens organizations.Aside from his involvement in civic groups and causes, Moder was a firefighter for 21 years and retired as a lieutenant. He was also a science teacher at IS 192 in Hollis. He taught at Hillcrest High School where he wrote that school's science curriculum, and was also a summer school principal in Uniondale, L.I. Also to be honored will be JD Thakral, a registered Democrat who unsuccessfully ran for the open city council seat in 2001 now occupied by City Councilman David Weprin (D-Hollis). Philip Sica, the club's current president who challenged Borough President Helen Marshall in 2005, is also the president of the Queens Village-based Wise Choice Realty on Jamaica Avenue, which he established with Thakral. Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 173.
