PR pros of LI present annual awards

Sandy Choi managed to get New York Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams, who usually writes about Brad and Angelina, to do a piece on the Suffolk County Water Authority's auctioning off old surplus fire hydrants. Adams is a dog lover, and Choi, of Great Neck-based PR firm Zimmerman/ Edelson Inc., thought the celeb writer would like the notion of people buying hydrants for their canines.

That's part of what won Choi, 25, of Searingtown, the Rising Star Award from the Public Relations Professionals of Long Island at the organization's 21st annual awards dinner at Chateau Briand in Westbury Tuesday night.

"When I was younger I always dreamed of winning an Academy Award," Choi told the gathering. "But this is better."

Pat Calabria, of Farmingdale State College, won the Jack Rettaliata Award for lifetime achievement in public relations; Jim Morgo, of Morgo Private Public Strategies of Brookhaven, won the Long Island Achievement Award; Deborah K. Herman, of DKH Communications of Commack, won the Outstanding Media Member Award, and Luis Portiansky, of Marketing Outsources Llc, won the PRPLIMentor Award.