The
Henry Street Settlement held its annual Spring
Dinner Dance last Tuesday night at Pier 60 of the Chelsea
Piers honoring Marlene Hess and Daisy
Soros for their humanitarian
efforts and philanthropic contributions with Beverly
Sills presenting them with their awards.
The Henry Street Settlement was created by one of the most
influential and respected social reformers (back when social
reformers were the
Real Thing) of the 20th Century, Lillian Wald, in
1893 when she "settled
in" on the Lower East Side (then a teeming neighborhood of immigrant
families) to care for the poor. In 1895, financier and philanthropist
Jacob Schiff purchased a property at 265 Henry Street
and repaired and furnished it and Miss Wald moved in. Seven years
later the Settlement
added buildings at 299, 301 and 303 Henry Street, including a gymnasium,
opening one of the city's first playgrounds — providing a
safe environment for children theretofore forced to play in crowded
and unsafe city
streets.
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Lillian
Wald |
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Lillian
Wald was a woman born into a life of privilege. At age 22 she came
to Manhattan to attend the New York Hospital School of Nursing.
When she founded the Henry Street Settlement she began teaching
health and hygiene to immigrant women on the impoverished Lower
East Side.
Thereafter Miss Wald devoted herself to the community full-time.
By the early 1900s, the Settlement included a team of twenty nurses
and was offering an astonishing array of innovative and effective
social, recreational and educational services. The salary of the
first public school nurse in New York City (in 1902) was paid for
by Henry Street. Her success led the Board of Education to appoint
nurses in city schools. In 1908, they opened the first summer camps
for children. A few years later they build a "neighborhood playhouse" theatre
which to this day continues to showcase many Settlement Arts programs.
In 1927, they opened the Henry Street Music School which through
the years has hosted and produced hundreds of concerts and operas
and trained thousands of musicians.
Lillian Wald remained involved in the Henry Street Settlement for
more than thirty years, until she retired in 1930. Since its inception,
and throughout the past century, many families who were assisted
by Lillian Wald's work have continued to support the Henry Street
Settlement. This year's honorees, Mrs. Hess and Mrs. Soros are prime
examples of the spirit of Henry Street — community minded, humanitarian,
hard-working women who participate daily and directly in supporting
life in New York.
This year's Co-Chairs were Laura Hunt, Eva Jeanbart-Lorenzotti,
Pilar Crespi Robert, and Jill Swid. DJ
Tom Finn kept the evening
dancing
and Sotheby’s executive vice-president and auctioneer Jamie
Niven conducted a live auction with irresistible
items to bid on. In the crowd: Zac Posen, Jaime Johnson,
Dayssi and Paul Kanavos, Samantha
and Serena Boardman, Rena Sindi, Eliza Reed Bolen, Tory and Chris
Burch, Coralee Charriol and Dennis Paul, Jennifer Creel, Coco and
Arie Kopelman, Gigi Mortimer, Julia and David Koch, Prince Dimitri
of Yugoslavia, Valesca and Matthias Guerrand-Hermes, and Gilles
and
Kelly Bensimon. |
