Rockville Centre's Sandel Senior Center hosts Monte Carlo Casino Night

About 200 people turned out to the Sandel Senior Center last Saturday for Monte Carlo Casino Night, an annual event held by the Friends of Senior Services, Inc., to gamble eat and enjoy one another’s company.

The event serves as a major fundraiser for FOSSI, a non-profit organization that supports the Rockville Centre Department of Senior Services. Its programs are made possible thanks to this event, along with sponsorships, which offer the business community exposure and networking.

Attendees ate, drank and hit the casino tables during the affair. The event honored Butch Yamali, president of the Dover Group, one of the largest catering providers in the Metropolitan area. Among other humanitarian causes and achievements, Yamali serves on the board of South Nassau Communities Hospital and is an analyst for small business on Fox Business News. He was named Nassau County’s Businessman of the Year in 2015.

Chris O’Leary, director of the Sandel Senior Center, said the event raised about $35,000. In the last few years, she added, the center has used funds collected at the event to buy a handicapped-accessible bus, automate the center’s front and bathroom doors, purchase new floors and furniture and refurbish its social work office. FOSSI also pays for an annual luncheon that celebrates the center’s volunteers.

“It was a wonderful night,” O’Leary said. “The money that we raise at this helps us do such wonderful things at the center.”