Public Access Television will celebrate 20 wonderful years of serving the community with a gala on Sunday, Oct. 17, 5 to 8 p.m., at the Village Club at Lake Success. The evening will include a special video presentation, a silent auction and a "celebrity alumni appearance."

PATV's service to the community includes a large, diverse, exciting selection of local television programming, video workshops for students and residents, a platform for producers to exercise their first amendment right to free speech and a vehicle for non-profit organizations to inform residents of available services.

The mission statement for PATV states: "The Public Access TV Corporation is a not-for-profit community organization which promotes and produces television programming of an educational, literary, cultural and civic nature for cablecast on Channel 20 in the 15 incorporated villages of Great Neck /North Shore."

PATV Executive Director Shirley Bruno is justifiably proud: "In this 20th year of serving the community, I'm proud of PATV being awarded national recognition from Hometown Video Festival by receiving first place in "Overall Excellence" in Public Access. PATV also has the honor of being the recipient of the first FOLIO award given to a public access center. I look forward to future expansion and excellence in serving our community."

PATV President Norman Hall added that he and other local programmers have the opportunity to work with "many multitalented residents." Mr. Hall said that "It is extremely fulfilling and very gratifying to have so many interested volunteers participating in our current programming, in addition to being part of our view to the future." PATV was awarded the prestigious "Overall Excellence in Public Access" for the 2004 Hometown USA Video Festival sponsored by the Alliance for Community Media. The award was presented to PATV for the programming produced and cablecast on Channel 20 and how it met community needs and concerns.

From June 2003 to May 2004, approximately 378 original programs were produced locally by community residents and organizations. PATV cablecast about 2,782 hours of programming this year. In addition to cablecasting programs, PATC provided our community with the ability to earn up to 18 college credits at Nassau Community College by viewing "College of the Air" for the fall, spring and summer semesters.

Last year, PATV trained 41 community residents in basic and advanced video production. Training is provided by staff and instructors to community residents from high school to senior citizens. The standard workshops offered were studio and remote field production including basic and advanced editing classes. In addition, this year PATV offered a special director's workshop for veteran producers. For the second year in a row, high school students from Manhasset High School's "Project Succeed" (students at risk) attended weekly training sessions. In addition to this specialized training program, PATV offered special studio video workshops for high school students in all our local area schools. Also, this year a high school Girl Scout troop from Manhasset was involved in training for the entire year under PATV's "Young Women in Technology" Project. Last summer the students of the Manhasset /Great Neck EOC participated in a two-week video camp.

One of PATV's unique projects is "New Playwrights," a program introducing original new plays and playwrights to the television viewing audience. This special project created in 1996 by Norman Hall, president of the board of directors of PATV, consists of a playwrights' contest --- the production of the two winning entries by a cast of professional actors and director, plus a showcase opened to the public.

For information about the 20th Anniversary Celebration (reservation deadline is Oct. 5) or to place an ad in the anniversary journal (by Sept. 29), call PATV at 629-3710 ext. 12.