Heidi Albertsen (Honoree).

New York City - Heidi Albertsen, Melissa Russo and Justine Simmons joined together to raise funds for the Lower Eastside Service Center (LESC), for the benefit of the center's camp for at-risk youth and the pregnant women and infant program on Monday, May 17.

"Both these programs are vitally important to LESC's mission and are the only ones still in need of funding," said Albertsen. "LESC is very grateful for the funding it receives to deal with chemical dependency, but we need to raise as much as possible in order to complete our mission of serving the community at our highest level."

LESC is celebrating its 51st year as a non-profit working with the Lower Eastside community to assist those afflicted with substance abuse. It provides a full continuum of treatment and care for New Yorkers living with chemical dependency and mental health issues. LESC is accredited with full standards compliance by the Commission of Accredited Rehabilitation Facilities, which means LESC has passed an in-depth review of its services, and received three exemplary commendations.

Bara de Cabrol and Petula Clark.

"Providing services for young people and pregnant women who are affected by chemical dependency is important work," said Simmons. "We must all band together to help people get back on the right track in life and limit long term dangerous effects of controlled substances."

The benefit was held at Capitale at 130 Bowery, New York City from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Guests included Albertsen, Russo, Simmons, and Elizabeth Hoadley, Petula Clark, Bob Weinstein and Rev Run.

About The Lower Eastside Service Center
LESC is a 501(c)(3) that believes that chemical dependency is a chronic and progressive disease with multiple causes affecting the social, physical, spiritual, cultural and emotional aspects of people's lives. They categorically believe that opioid dependency is medically treatable with proven, clinically researched methods to abate cravings that cause relapse. Its programs offer treatment plans designed for each client's specific needs, outpatient and residential treatment tracks, state-of-the-art medications to help prevent cravings, dual diagnosis assessment and treatment, primary healthcare, vocational counseling and housing assistance.

For more information go to www.lesc.org.

Sandy Patofsky, Patricia Hoffman and Herb Barish.