This is my last opportunity to invite you to join me, my family, friends and readers to be part of a magnificent event in which we will pay tribute to Cherri Kravitz. It will be held at Maynard’s Café in Margate on Sunday, July 26, at 5pm.

Cherri was a dream girl. When you thought about having children, you prayed they would come into this world with an open mind and a love for their fellow human beings. All three of my children had this innate ability to help not only one another, but those around them in their society. Cherri always had a smile on her face and a willingness to help the children she taught and the friends with whom she grew up. She would often have some of them come to our house so that she could tutor them. Cherri lived with us throughout her entire 42 years. When her friends asked why she wouldn’t move out and get her own place, she asked “Why? I have it so good. I enjoy the most delicious meals anyone could enjoy, and I am surrounded with the love of my parents and my brothers. I come and go as I please and am never questioned about where I’ve been or what I’ve done.” When she became ill with cancer of the breast, she fought valiantly and did everything the doctors told her to do. But, unfortunately, it was not enough. On May 7, 2006, Cherri joined the angels in heaven.

For the many wonderful things that she did while she was on this earth, my family and I decided we needed to do something to perpetuate her name. Since she had taught for 18 years, and was always interested in helping the children get scholarships and assistance for their education, we felt the best way to pay tribute to her was to have a scholarship fund and continue her objective of helping young people enter college. And so began the Cherri Kravitz Scholarship Foundation. My sons and my daughter-in-laws and some of their friends and Cherri’s friends put together a fundraising event last year. Despite the heavy rain and flooding of the streets, the event was a success.

On Sunday, we will have the Second Annual Cherri Kravitz tribute. I hope you will join us, for if you do, you’ll hear wonderful stories about Cherri. You will meet her family and the friends who will regale you with the quality of this wonderful young lady who left this earth too soon. Donations are $15, and if you cannot make it but would like to send a contribution, please make your check payable to: Cherri Kravitz Scholarship Foundation, P.O. Box 2628, Ventnor City, N.J. 08406. There will be a complimentary buffet, a cash bar, entertainment and wonderful prizes from Chinese and silent auctions. I truly hope to see you there.

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Boardwalk Committee Notes

A representative of the Lions Blind Center made a request to have a Braille map for those without vision in 20 locations along the Boardwalk, several in The Walk, at the police station and in the emergency room of the AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, Atlantic City campus. If this were to be done, as requested, Atlantic City would be the first city in the nation to be in complete compliance with the requests of the American Disabilities Association. The committee was asked to adopt the resolution supporting this request and send it to City Council and Mayor Lorenzo Langford. The 35 people in attendance voted unanimously to approve this resolution, and it will be sent to the requested parties.

Representatives of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) stated that the bids for the construction of a garage on Fairmount Avenue will be approved in August. It is anticipated that work will begin in the fall for completion in late 2010. The CRDA reps also noted the work on widening Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard will begin in September with the demolition of the Post Office building and the other buildings on that avenue. The CRDA will begin working on the extension of the street ends of the Boardwalk at New York and Texas avenues in the fall to provide space for tables and chairs for the food establishments there. The CRDA expects to finish the remaining blocks in need of new façades by next summer, and will then have completed almost every non-casino block on the Boardwalk with a new façade. It’s taken a few years to get this done, and the CRDA should be commended for providing the funds and expertise to refurbish the shops on the Boardwalk. It is a welcome sight.

The rest room facilities at Chelsea and New York avenues have new roofs and an entire new look. The Special Improvement District has a new robot machine that is currently cleaning the area between the dunes and the Boardwalk. It can pick up anything from a cigarette butt to a bottle, and has been doing a good job of cleaning that area where people throw things from the Boardwalk onto the beach. The turnaround of the number of people on the boards this year has increased since the cleanup began earlier this month, and there have been more people walking on the Boardwalk than this time last year.

Tom Lamaine, the former Philadelphia TV meteorologist, has expressed his concern about the condition of the Boardwalk — specifically the section at the inlet, which is quite dangerous. He stated that he requested City Council to use the $1.2 million it has for the Boardwalk to remove a dangerous section. He said that council approved it unanimously, 7-0, but it still hasn’t been done. He will go back to council and urge members to get the work started for the betterment of the people in the First Ward and in the entire community.

Lamaine was one of the first to buy a home on New Hampshire Avenue. It is in the same block where his parents live and where he was born and raised. He said he is devoting himself toward trying to improve A.C. and its environs.

The Boardwalk Committee will continue with its drive to reduce the height of the dunes, and use the removed sand to widen the dunes.

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Pinky’s Corner airs Monday through Friday from 4 to 6pm on News Talk WOND-AM 1400. His TV show, WMGM Presents Pinky, airs Saturday at 7:30pm on TV40. Pinky’s e-mail address is: pinky@acweekly.com.