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 It Can Be Done
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| Just beating the rain. 6:00 PM. Photo: JH. |
Wednesday, September 19, 2012. The weatherman forecast big rainstorms and even tornado warnings, and from early morning to late afternoon, the skies were heavy and grey, but no precipitation.
Over on 72nd and Lexington at Archivia at 6 PM, they were holding a booksigning for Amanda Nisbet and her new book “Dazzling Design” and praying that it wouldn’t be rained out (or tornadoed). |
| Archivia at last night's booksigning for Amanda Nisbet and her new book "Dazzing Design." |
| Amanda Nisbet with "Dazzing Design." |
Nisbet's parents Mr. and Mrs. Travers. |
| The irrepressible Mario Buatta coming in just before the big rain. |
I left the house about ten to seven with umbrella, in black tie, headed for Cipriani 42nd Street for the annual New Yorkers for Children Benefit.
The raindrops began falling gently just as I hit the street. And then just as a cab pulled up to take me, it started. We immediately got on the FDR Drive at 79th Street – bumper-to-bumper – and then down it came -- a deluge, practically blocking out all vision through the windshield. And a traffic jam ... because, aside from the rains: Mr. Obama was in town to a fund-raiser somewhere on the East Side and then to the Letterman show. Presidential corteges and the “security” logistics close off entire streets and avenues frustrating all traffic throughout the city. |
| Half an hour on the FDR from 79th to 49th because of Obama in town and the downpour. |
| Made worse by the rains, we crawled, and stalled, and crawled some more. What usually would take three to four minutes on the FDR took 25. Streets were flooding. I was dreading sloshing around in my dress slip-ons before I got into the dry Cipriani hall. However, my clever, patient cabbie navigated his car to deliver me right to the door. All I had to do was make the jump across the three foot wide torrent by the curb. Which I did. Whew. |
| Lex and 42nd Street downpour. |
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Inside the great (65 foot high ceiling) hall, the rain was coming down so hard that people had to raise their voice to be heard over it. Called for six-thirty, the crowd had assembled. And it was some crowd. The great hall (which had been built in 1921 to house the Bowery Savings Bank for several decades) was set up for several hundred guests.
This was an awesome and inspiring evening, proof positive of the power of goodness and the bounties of initiative and self-reliance. I happened to attend the inaugural benefit of New Yorkers for Children about fifteen years ago, invited by my friend Beth DeWoody, held at the Chelsea Piers, a good group but much smaller. New Yorkers for Children had been an idea of Nicholas Scoppetta, who at the time was the (31st) Fire Commissioner of the City of New York.
The Goodness. Mr. Scoppetta had been in foster care as a child. He knew what it was like to come of age in foster care and subsequently be turned out of the system on one’s own with no back up support. He wanted to find a way to help those who came after him. |
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| The entrance to last night's gala. |
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At the first benefit he was joined by, among others in organizing it, Susan Burden, Oscar de la Renta, Beth DeWoody, Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos as well as others who’ve slipped from my memory of that moment. Their objective was to reach out and help young people plan their lives and continue education to prepare for being out in the world. On their own. With no family, no center, to hold them.
Initiative and Self-reliance. Last night was a tribute to its great success. We were treated to the witness of several of its recipients who spoke about their lives in foster care and afterwards. There are not many charitable events where the evening is entirely made up of speakers and the audience actually listens. Usually people lend their attention for the first few minutes. But after that, it’s a competition between the rostrum and the diners. Not at the New Yorkers for Children, however.
There was an air of celebration in the room. Hope and Affirmation. The guests dressed for a formal occasion. The women were beautifully turned out, and the men were in black tie. Cipriani serves a great signature dinner: a salad of Asparagus, Mushrooms, Artichokes, Fava Beans, String Beans, Parmesan and Whole Grain Cracker, followed by a hefty four inch thick Individual Prime Roast Filet of Beef with Perigourdine Sauce, Farro with Zucchini and Corn and a Bundle of Baby Carrots tied with Leek and for dessert, Zabaglione Cake with Fresh Strawberries, Cipriani Chocolate Cake with Tahitian Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. |
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| Zhanna Raymond and Brentin Brown, NYFC participants who were emcees of last night's gala. |
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Once seated for dinner, the evening was opened by Zhanna Raymond and Brentin Brown, both graduates of the NYFC programs. Both have previously shared their history of the trauma and despair leading up to and being placed in foster care. However, last night at the podium we saw two self-possessed, dynamic individuals, who with the assistance and support of NYFC, are out in the world pursuing their educations and careers.
Ms. Raymond and Mr. Brown serving as emcees introduced Crystalann Rodriguez, who last year told us her story of a childhood of serious abuse and the ensuing years in foster care. She explained how the support of NYFC had not only assisted her continuing her education but also coming to terms with her personal situation, giving her a self-confidence and attitude about her life that she had never had growing up. She also added that she had been treated to a full makeover by M-A-C Cosmetics and what a pleasure it was, before coming on stage to introduce the first honoree of the evening, John Demsey. |
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| Crystalann Rodriguez introducing honoree John Demsey. |
| Honoree John Demsey and Aerin Lauder. |
Mr. Demsey is Chairman of M-A-C AIDS Fund and Group President, the Estee Lauder Companies where he oversees a wide portfolio of Lauder brands including Estee Lauder, M-A-C Cosmetics, Tom Ford Beauty, Prescriptives, Bobbi Brown, Jo Malone, La Mer, and Smashbox. Through the sales of VIVA GLAM Lipsticks and Lipglass, the M-A-C AIDS Fund has raised nearly $250 million.
John Demsey, also active in several other charitable organizations, is a very popular yet unassuming, quiet spoken fellow on the social circuit, known for his kindness, generosity and friendship. He shared with us his first attendance at these dinners and how impressed he was with the work of NYFC and especially its graduates.
Following his acceptance, another NYFC participant, Jermaine Christian took the podium to introduce the other honoree of the evening, Justin Tuck of the New York Giants. |
| Jermaine Christian introducing Justin Tuck. |
| NY Giant's Justin Tuck telling the audience how he became involved with New Yorkers for Children. |
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Jermaine Christian, like his confreres, told his story and his finding NYFC which has supported him through thick and thin to the point where he is now an Economics major at NYU. (Cheers from the crowd!) What is amazing (and heartening) about the NYFC participants is their resolve and their resilience. Mr. Christian’s background, which was sad and tragic, was recounted frankly, but by a young man full of enthusiasm and commitment to his academic and professional pursuits. You could also tell he was honored and delighted to introduce Mr. Tuck.
Justin Tuck, if you didn’t know, was raised in Kellytown, Alabama, a town known as “Tuckville” to many of its citizens because of the 150+ Tuck family members living in the community of 700 people. He told us how fortunate he was to have a mother, father, uncle, siblings (six), cousins who always provided him with a strong support system and secure background to go out in the world.
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| Two NYFC Spirit awards recipients introducing Brian Fleurimond. |
| North Shore-LIJ Health System NYFC 2012 Spirit Award recipient Brian Fleurimond. |
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When he was introduced to NYFC, he was amazed at what its young participants just out of foster care, with none of the advantages he had, could do with the NYFC support. Both he and his wife Lauran (who is now a board member) have been active in helping children overcome illiteracy in his hometown as well as in New York and New Jersey.
The final award of the evening, the North Shore-LIJ Health System NYFC 2012 Spirit Award, introduced by two former recipients, was for Brian Fleurimond, a 21-year-old sophomore majoring in Criminal Justice and minoring in Social Work at SUNY – Genessee Community College in upstate New York.
Mr. Fleurimond gave a powerful speech about his life. When he was nine, his mother, who always came to pick him up after school, didn’t appear. When he and his brother got home, they found her on the kitchen floor, dead. Murdered. By whom and why, was never to be known. Without a word of explanation or preparation, he and his siblings (two brothers and one sister) were placed in foster care. |
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| Marc Cohn entertaining last night's guests after the awards presentations. |
His journey from that loss took him to several foster homes. In school he was a captain of his soccer, baseball and basketball teams, teaching him leadership at an early age. But by his senior year in high school he thought his only option was to drop out of school and look for a job.
A trip to a local college sponsored by his foster care agency, however, made him realize that he wanted to go to college. He enrolled in an alternative high school program where he could work during the day and go to school at night. He graduated with perfect attendance, a Regents diploma and a citizenship award.
After the speeches, Jamie Niven of Sotheby’s conducted an auction and an opportunity to sponsor a student in foster care to participate in the NYFC Guardian Scholars Program for one year -- $10,000. This was followed by a Special Musical Performance by Marc Cohn. |
| Yaz Hernandez, Joseph Fichera, Ida Liu, and Serge Tismen (Mr. and Mrs.) |
| Kathy Steinberg, Henry Davis and Alice Shure. |
| Alexandra Lebenthal. |
Dana Hammond Stubgen. |
| Neal Fox and Martha Kramer. |
| Kate Allen and Wibby Sevener. |
| Donya Bommer and Elisa Tablada. |
| Bennatta Blau, Martin Leder, and Kimberly Guilfoyle. |
| Gillian Miniter and Jay Diamond. |
| Jennifer Pinkos. |
Susan Gilroy. |
| The girls ready with the goody bags. |
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The message of the New Yorker for Children evening is it can be done. Young people facing the world, against so many odds, with the care and interest of others, can progress, make and take responsibility, improve their lots in life and show us all the way to a much better world than what is presented to them, to us, to all. It can be done, by us. This is something that eludes very many of us much of our days for many reasons and explanations, but It Can Be Done. New Yorkers For Children and its roster of participants is proof, over and over.
Postscript. We learned last night while sitting at the desk writing this diary, in an email message from Steve Duncan, an NYSD reader in Indianapolis, that Steve Sabol of NFL Films, the beloved brother of our friend and contributor Blair Sabol, had died yesterday after a valiant fight against brain cancer. Our hearts go out to his devoted family, his mother and father Audrey and Ed Sabol, his sister and his uncle Herb Siegel. |
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