HAMDEN -- Tickets are still available for the Hamden Democratic Party’s Spring Gala, to be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Cascade Banquet Facility, 480 Sherman Ave.  Tickets are $60 per person, or $600 for a table.

Edward M. Kennedy, Jr., the son of the late Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, will be the guest speaker.  Kennedy is the president of the Marwood Group, a firm that advises corporations about health care and financial services.  He also serves on the Board of Directors of the American Association of People with Disabilities.

The Democratic Party will also be honoring eight Hamden Democrats, who will be the first recipients of the Bernard Nitkin Hamden Distinguished Democrat Award. The award is named after the former Hamden Democratic Party treasurer, Bernard Nitkin, who passed away recently.  The 2011 honorees are: former Legislative Council member and former Hamden purchasing agent Judi Kozak; former Legislative Council member John Flanagan; Hamden Police Commission Member Gerald Migliaro; former Board of Education chair and former State Representative Nancy Beals; Raymond Sims Sr.; former Hamden Mayor John L. Carusone; former Legislative Council member Tony Mentone; and former town committee member Don Werner.

Also at the Gala, the Fourth Annual Gloria C. Sandillo Scholarship Award will be given to a high school senior from Hamden.  For more information, or for tickets, please visit the Democratic Party’s website, http://www.hamdendemocrats.com/, or call Joseph McDonagh at 203-676-6271.