"It's a fun adult evening for a critical cause, so I expect that everyone will come back this year with the same enthusiasm with which they left last year." This year's "Night Aboard the Mighty Merrimack Riverboat Queen" takes place from 6 to 10 p.m. Thursday, April 11, at Lowell Memorial Auditorium. Tickets are $50 per person, which includes $1,000 of casino play money, food and entertainment. Organizers are hoping for another full house since proceeds benefit homelessness prevention programs.
To help that along, CTI is dealing out much of what made last year's maiden voyage a jackpot of fun, according to Shelton. That includes the wooden plank that ushered guests, who were bedecked in shiny beads by the riverboat crew, into a whole new world that evoked a little bit of Las Vegas glitz and a lot of another era. Enthusiastically greeting them were Lowell City Councilor Rita Mercier and her granddaughter,Home electricity monitor Jacqueline, who were "all in" as Joan and Melissa Rivers. They're reprising their red carpet roles this year, Shelton said. Also on deck were roaring '20s music, a large array of hors d'oeuvres, cash bar, flappers and gangsters, shiny beads and feather boas, a card magician, the Gentleman Songsters, raffle baskets, silent auction, prizes, casino gaming tables and lots of happy faces. Some were new to gaming, others not so much. Some were in costume, which is optional; others in everyday attire. The gaming tables were such a hit with both new gamers and veterans that "we are adding more this year," Shelton said. "Prizes will be awarded throughout the night -- the more you play the more prizes you can win, plus everyone is eligible for the door prizes."
This year's floor show is a Vegas-like Tom Jones tribute band, Shelton said, adding that Kay Ritter of Light Magic Entertainment will also be back. Her green screen photography allows guests to preserve their memories of the evening with photos in front of a riverboat, the Titanic, a saloon and other choices.
Jack Malnati of Dracut traveled aboard with his wife, Linda, and some friends.
"We had a fantastic time last year. All aspects of the event were great -- the food, the entertainment, the gaming and the silent auction," he said. "We also saw some people there that we had lost touch with several years before and were able to reconnect with them. We can't wait for this year."Among those who have been helped with the flexible funds generated from the riverboat and other fundraisers is Domingo Flores,Home energy management a native New Yorker who, shortly after a move to Massachusetts, became homeless, along with his son. "I didn't have any family around here, so I had no one to turn to," he said. He was doing per diem work at a hospital when he turned to CTI. While the state financed a hotel room, Flores participated in CTI programs that taught him interview skills, job search techniques and other vital elements toward self-sufficiency.
Within a couple of months, it paid off. He landed a security position at Lowell Community Health Center and has since been promoted. He earns twice what he made previously and, with CTI's guidance, is now living with his son in a two-bedroom apartment within walking distance of the health center. "There are a lot of families with no one to turn to. I was so lucky to have CTI, for their help and their support," he said. "I could never have accomplished this without them." Malnati and another guest, Ryan Coviello of Lowell, said that helping such families is an important bonus. "The most amazing thing is that all this fun is being accomplished while helping families who are struggling with everyday life in meeting mortgages and rents, putting food on the table for their families and paying for heat and gas," Malnati said.
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