Tandoori restaurant in Port Chester will be a fund-raising venue Thursday for a fund-raiser for survivors of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. The Port Chester / Rye Brook Rotary Club is organizing the event along with the group One World United and Virtuous. The Indian restaurant is donating all of the food, and the suggested donation for dinner is $50.

New Rochelle Youth Lacrosse, a nonprofit sports program for kids in grades 1-6, will hold a scholarship fundraiser Saturday in memory of Eric Tutera, “the epitome of a team player,” who died in 2008. The information is at www.nrlax.com.

Tutera, at 28, died in an accident in Hong Kong harbor, where he had traveled on a business trip. He was a former captain of the New Rochelle High School lacrosse team, said his coach, Pat Swift.

According to a fundraising letter, “some of Eric’s greatest assets were his deep-rooted friendships, leadership and his drive to achieve success.”

Celebrity wedding planner David Tutera will return to his home parish March 26 for a fundraiser at Corpus Christi-Holy Rosary Church and School in Port Chester.

Tutera is lending his expert advice as a member of the event committee organizing the celebration.

The Father Peter M. Rinaldi Awards Dinner is a first-annual event that will benefit the Salesian elementary school and its mission for children in the community.

The honorees are Sister Frances Gumino and the Fox and Diaz families; Eugene and Mary Fox, their daughter Margaret Fox Diaz and granddaughter Christina Diaz.

(File photo: Stephen Schmitt / The Journal News)

Obituary: Sydney Stanton, former reporter and editor for the Port Chester Daily Item

Sydney Stanton, a former reporter and editor for the Port Chester Daily Item, a predecessor of The Journal News, died Feb. 10 at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Rahway, N.J.

She was 89.

Born in Gloversville, Stanton earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and began working as a reporter for The Daily Item on Oct. 17, 1966.

Stanton became the Sound Shore newspaper’s features editor, writing and overseeing coverage of local arts, entertainment and culture at the Daily Item, one of 10 Lower Hudson Valley newspapers purchased by Gannett Co.

In a 2001 interview with The Journal News, Stanton recalled working out of the Item’s historic former home on Westchester Avenue.

“As far as we were concerned, it was the greatest place there was,” Stanton told the newspaper. “There were crazy things that were happening all the time.”

Stanton, a resident of Rye Brook, continued to work as a features editor until her retirement in 1989, just four months shy of her 23rd year with the paper.

“She was truly dedicated to community journalism, and she was a great ambassador for the newspaper in the community,” recalled Journal News morning local editor Mike Meaney, who worked with Stanton at the Daily Item. “Among her co-workers, she was known for the great parties she threw at her home. She was such a warm person. She made us all feel as if we were family.”

Her son Thomas spoke fondly of his mother’s ties with the community and the friendships with her co-workers.

“She was very warm and a had a great sense of humor,” he said.

Stanton also instilled an appreciation for journalism and education in her children.

“We are all good writers in some manner,” said her son, a public relations executive for McGraw-Hill.

Stanton remained in Rye Brook after retiring, and was an occasional contributor to the newspaper where she once worked. She moved to Rahway in recent years.

Stanton is survived by her daughters, Lynn Bains of Scotland, Susan Kane of Washington and Hilary Zunin of California, and a son, Thomas Stanton of Roselle Park.

She is also survived five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, her family said.

Donations in her memory may be made to the Rye Brook Police Department D.A.R.E. Program at Friends of Rye Brook/D.A.R.E. Program, Village of Rye Brook, 938 King St., Rye Brook 10573.

Funeral services were handled by Sullivan Funeral Home in Roselle, N.J.

It’s fun to watch theater kids on their journeys.

Four years ago, I interviewed a tiny Carly Rose Sonenclar, then a bubbly second-grader at F.E. Bellows Elementary School in Mamaroneck.

She had been cast as “Young Cosette” in “Les Miserables” on Broadway. (Photo by Joan Marcus.)

Three years later, I caught up with Carly again, backstage at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse (photo below, by yours truly), where she was appearing in the national tour of the “Little House on the Prairie” musical, which starred Melissa Gilbert as “Ma.” Carly was taller, more mature, but still bubbly.

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Daniel Ullman, the 17-year-old Blind Brook High School student who organized a “sleep out” for the homeless last year, is one of the young New Yorkers being recognized by the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards for volunteerism.

Danny worked with neighbors, Rye Brook officials and the school community to arrange the overnight fund-raiser on the Blind Brook athletic field in May. He collected more than $4,000 along with supplies to help the homeless – and, just as importantly to him, raised awareness about the issue.

He has launched an effort called HEARTH for All.

The Prudential awards recognized nine other young volunteers across New York state. Two of them — Paarth Shah, 16, of Horseheads and Sarah Connor, 11, of Northport — received top honors and will attend a national ceremony in May.

(Photo: Carucha L. Meuse/The Journal News)

It takes a lot to get to Scotland’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival — and New Rochelle High School’s TheaterWorks kids should know: In August, the high school will send its third cast to the American High School Theater Festival that is part of the Fringe.

Theatre Works presented “Hair” in 2003 and “The Cradle Will Rock” in 2006. This summer, it’s “Saving Seatown: The Underwater Superhero Musical,” which began as a senior project created by students of the high school’s PAVE Theater program. It has been expanded into a full-length musical by two of the former students, Paul Rigano and Katy Weiller.

You can see what Scottish audiences will see, months in advance, when “Seatown” gets it American premiere, at New Rochelle’s Linda Kelly Theatre April 28 through May 1.

To help get the cast to Edinburgh, members of Theater Works will hold their annual dinner-theater fundraiser at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 3, 4, and 5.

For $15 ($12 for students and seniors), patrons will get dinner (chicken, pasta, salad, soda or water, coffee or tea and dessert) and a cabaret show, followed by a performance of Alan Haehnel’s comedy “The Idiot’s Guide to High School,” billed as “a humorous review of high school’s pratfalls.”

The dinner and cabaret are in the cafeteria in the school’s new wing. The performance is across the hall in the intimate Linda Kelly Theater.

Call 914-546-3938 to make a reservation, which is recommended.