The Autumnal Equinox. The day and the night times are equal on this day. The Hurricane Rita wreaks havoc for the Gulf coast, a Category 5 now terrifying all Americans.

Yesterday was a warm but beautiful day in New York. Early in the evening I went down to Cipriani 42nd Street where New Yorkers for Children were holding their annual benefit gala. And it was a gala, New York style with all kinds of luminaries lighting up the night in the cavernous hall that once upon a time was the Bowery Savings Bank.

Marian Wright Edelman

The organization was founded in 1996 by former Children’s Services Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta as the non-profit partner to the Administration for Children’s Services. Mr. Scoppetta was himself a foster child and his experience inspired him to do something about the plight of children in our city. Child abuse, abandonment and neglect are running higher than ever.

The organization took off immediately. Oscar de la Renta lent his name and his energy to it. So did Susan Burden who is now Vice-President of the organization (Scoppetta is president). Susan Magazine is Executive Director. Their board members are varied prominent and industrious New Yorkers: Mona Ackerman, Debbie Bancroft, Osborn Elliott, Isabella Rossellini, Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos, Anna Wintour, Paul Crotty, Lawrence Mandell, Jon Blum, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Wendeen Eolis, Lauren Shortt, Eric Brettschneider, Larry Harris, Tim Schifter, Geoffrey Canada, Kathryn Conroy, Daniel Kronenfeld, Peggy Penn, Jack O’Kelley, and Donya Archer Bommer. Mrs. Bommer and her husband Scott Bommer and Kelly and Jay Sugarman took the fund-raising to a new level this year and last night’s event raised $1.4 million.

The donations over the past nine years, coming from individuals, corporations, and foundations, have supported projects that have affected and changed the lives of the almost 20,000 children in foster care as well the more than 34,000 children whose at-risk families receive preventive services in New York City.

I had breakfast with a nephew this morning and we talked about our fathers whose troubles laid so much distress at our doorsteps when we were both children. My nephew pointed out how children at a very early age are sensitive, even more sensitive than adults, to the lay of the land, to the emotional temperature of the room although they may not be able to verbally articulate it. He told me how in his father’s house, the children would wake up in the morning and not get out of bed until they heard their father stirring — so that they could gauge the risk they might be taking crossing his path. I knew the same experience except it was when my father came home late at night from work.

Our conversation reminded again how for every child growing up under the roof of the all-powerful parents, there is frequently very real danger confronting their daily and innocent paths. Thanks to the adults who have not cleared up, worked out, or dealt with the roots of their own despair and distress. And these children (like the little four-legged animals that also occupy similar environments) are without defense and protection from what are often monstrous and life-threatening circumstances.

I always have a hard time processing these truths. It brings out the private rage in me and I find myself with little (or no) tolerance for the adult perpetrators of physical and emotional abuse in the home. I have to work my way through that morass just to engage sympathy for these troubled ones who harm our children.

So I applaud all of those, such as the people at New Yorkers For Children, who extend their hands and their resources to helping the children. Those children who must struggle through without assistance and support frequently go on to hopeless lives often repeating the patterns that were inflicted on them, and all to the detriment to the rest of us, never knowing about the truth and the miracles of the helping hand.

Glenn Coleman, recipient of the 2005 Freddie Mac Foundation Spirit Award

Last night they gave the 2005 Freddie Mac Foundation Spirit Award to Glenn Coleman who is a senior at Howard University in Washington. Mr. Coleman entered foster care as a teenager. He is one of those powerful individuals who was not only able to prevail but to also lend his inner strengths to his peers as a mentor. After graduation, he has tentative plans to go on to dental school, and recently completed an internship in a dental office where he continues to volunteer his time. At twenty-two, however, he has already had a taste of his talent for leadership in the community. This experience has been compelling and has motivated him and we may be witnessing a future leader in the community or in his field of endeavor.

They also gave an award to Russell Simmons and Marian Wright Edelman for their work for and devotion to the cause of assisting children in need.

Mayor Bloomberg made an appearance, as did John Mattingly, Commissioner, Administration for Children’s Services. Geoffrey Canada also spoke and presented the award Glenn Coleman.