When District 75 paraprofessional Antonio Acevedo was told that he and other colleagues who had logged 30 years on the job were to be fed and feted for an evening, he suspected a prank. “I was shocked,” say Acevedo, a Brooklyn native who has been a para for students with special needs for 33 years. “It’s been a long time since anyone asked me if I’d like to go to an appreciation dinner for myself and other paras. And by a long time, I mean never.” Acevedo joined some 25 other District 75 paraprofessionals at a restaurant in Chelsea on April 21. The celebrants, ranging in age from 50 to 87, ate chicken and ribs, dished with colleagues and were honored with speeches and service medals. They left satisfied that their life’s work had not gone unnoticed. “I’ve wanted to do this work since I was 11,” says Christine Hunter, who has been a paraprofessional at PS 138 in Harlem for more than 30 years. “We had a girl in the neighborhood who was what we called ‘different,’ and she’d sit with me on the stoop. I taught her to write her name and count money so nobody would rip her off. To this day, when I teach a child to tie his shoes or teach a little girl to hold a spoon, I’m so happy you would think I won the lotto.” The UFT’s District 75 office hopes to make the appreciation dinner an annual event. “Paraprofessionals do amazing things every single day,” says District 75 Special Representative Michael Santos. “They deserve our respect and a show of gratitude.”