The Morris Park Community Association’s 40th Annual Dinner Dance is coming up this month.
The yearly fundraiser supports the MPCA’s volunteers as they run their neighborhood patrol, senior program, exercise program and educational classes, as well working on the Bronx Columbus Day Parade. The organization also acts as a go-between for the elected officials, police, and community.
John Musto, 45, an assistant principal at St. Raymond’s High School for Boys and a volunteer basketball coach at St. Francis Xavier School will be honored at the dinner dance, which will be held on Marina del Rey on Saturday, March 29.
“He is a local community guy who dedicates himself to working with youth,” MPCA President Tony Signorile said of Musto.
Musto said he has volunteered on and off in support of St. Francis Xavier’s youth basketball program for three decades, and has worked at St. Raymond’s High School for Boys for 23 years.
He started at St. Ray’s as a history teacher, and later rose to department chairman, before becoming an assistant principal about seven years ago, he said.
Growing up in Morris Park, Musto said that he always admired the MPCA’s work, partly because he participated a summer youth programs when he was a boy.
“My parents house was on Hone Avenue, right off Morris Park, and that was where the association was located, right on that corner,” he said.
Growing up in close proximity to the association’s headquarters for much of his youth led him to respect the volunteer work that the men in his neighborhood did to keep their community safe.
He said that his father always taught him to respect the volunteer work of the men in the MPCA, who staff their patrol car or run programs that make their community a better place to live and work.
“I knew them as people in the community that helped out,” he said, adding “there is something very honorable in that.”
He was “very flattered” to learn that he was this year’s MPCA dinner dance honoree.
He has a wife Liz, and three daughters Sabrina, 16, Gabriella, 14, and Olizia, 10.
Tickets for the dinner dance are $90 per person.
“As president, I feel that everyone from all communities should attend to support their local area,” said Signorile. “It is important to be together united, instead of being divided. With their support, we have a stronger community.”
To purchase tickets, call Signorile at (917) 715-2210.
