RICHARD FORMICOLA
Mandeli greets the
crowd at the dance.
across Bergen County got the chance
to unwind ahead of the weekend like
any other clubgoer.
Mandeli says it’s his way of giving
back to those he has spent so much
time around. Since his infancy, his
mother, Gail Tamirian-Mandeli, has
been bringing him to Life Opportunities Unlimited, the village-based
nonprofit she founded in 1995 that
specializes in adults with developmental disabilities.
And Mandeli has always strived to
share his life experiences with LOU’s
clients, he says, whether that meant
showing them how to build a bakingsoda volcano in elementary school
to how to perform magic tricks, for
which they were his first audience.
Over time, the only child came to
view the clients more as siblings than
strangers. “We’ve always had this
connection,” says the Cornell University sophomore.
And so four years ago, he created
the alcohol-free Club LOU Tonight to
show those same friends, many of
whom have felt unwelcome at proms
or school dances, what a night on the
town felt like.
EVERYTHING DONATED
His mother says that when her
high-school-aged son first proposed
the idea to her, she thought he was
crazy.
“‘I want the clients to have a real
club experience,’ he told her. He was
15! I was like, ‘You don’t even know
what a club experience is!’” she says,
laughing.
But now the event, which is in its
second year at Park West Tavern, has
attracted village-wide attention. Ridgewood’s finest restaurants contribute
the food, and its firefighters act as the
club’s “security.” A DJ and lighting
professional set the mood, and a photographer takes photos to
provide keepsakes.
Everything, Mandeli says, is donated, and two local banks – Columbia
and Boiling Springs – have sponsored
the event, which is open to all developmentally disabled adults age 21 and
older. >
SPECIAL PARENT | 2017 EDITION 37