The New England Society of New York recently held their annual Founder’s Day Celebration at a private club on the Upper East Side. The New England Society is one of the oldest social and charitable organizations in the United States, and was founded in 1805 to promote “friendship, charity and mutual assistance” among and on behalf of New Englanders living in New York. Today, NES focuses on a philanthropic mission, offering scholarships to college-age students from New York City attending colleges in New England.
The New York Center for Children (NYCC), with its mission of offering healing services to many of New York’s most vulnerable children, hosted its Spring Celebration “Passion for Prevention”, on May 23rd, 2022. The Annual event was graciously hosted and sponsored by the city’s elegant five-star Fifth Avenue luxury hotel, The Peninsula, New York. Barbara Harrison, the nationally recognized veteran television journalist and pioneer of the NBC4 award-winning Wednesday’s Child series, served as the Honorary Chair of the event.
Approximately 75 supporters gathered to raise more than $75,000 for NYCC’s vital mission of healing and preventing abuse. These proceeds will be utilized directly to help thousands of NYC children and families, as it has done over 25 years. The services help children, such as “Melissa” who was so isolated in her remote learning environment due to the pandemic that she began connecting with “new” friends, online. Unfortunately, she later was sexually assaulted by one of these individuals. Deeply traumatized, NYCC’s therapy services helped Melissa commence healing; and enabled her to return to in-person learning and a more optimistic future.
This story and so many more inspired Barbara Harrison to engage NYCC and connects directly to her life’s work. Honored with multiple Emmy and many other National awards, Barbara is well-known for shining a light on the health and welfare of children. She has also been honored by the New York Film Festival for outstanding achievement in reporting and has won countless national citations for her more than 40 years as a news anchor and reporter in the Nation’s Capital. She is currently producing children’s programming and specials that have been picked up for broadcast by both the U.S. Department of Education and United Nation’s “UNITAR” division. She is President and CEO of Barbara Harrison Media, and the Founding Producer and Host of “Kids Speak Out.”
Called a “Champion for Children,“ Barbara believes “That as a community we need to embrace the notion that it takes a village to support and protect children and families. I encourage all New Yorkers to help end the horrors of child abuse by embracing and supporting the NYCC theme: Passion for Prevention.”
Barbara brought her 40 years of television writing, reporting, anchoring, and producing to share the NYCC’s important mission of providing trauma-focused therapy services to victims of child abuse, free of charge, for as long as their healing requires.
In welcoming this year’s Honorary Chair for the Spring Event, Christine Rales, NYCC Board President shared, “Barbara’s unique ability to convey how important the NYCC organization’s efforts are toward delivering vital services, from a human impact perspective, is invaluable.”
For more information, visit https://newyorkcenterforchildren.org/about/
On Sunday, May 29th, Jim Brasher, board member of BYkids.org, hosted a fundraising screening of the award-winning film, OUT OF ALEPPO, in support of the work BYkids does to give kids a way to feel and fix global problems by using the films and educational material to catalyze student engagement.
Mohammad Shasho (age 17) made the perilous journey from Syria to Berlin and struggles with his family to set up a new life. Mentored by award-winning documentary filmmaker, Anja Baron, Mo finds his own voice and gives voice to his fellow refugees. He explores loss, art and hope in his debut film.
The guests, including many teens, were deeply moved and related to Mo’s story of leaving Syria and settling in Germany. Please watch the film here.
Photos by John Sanderson/AnnieWatt.com (NES); Rob Rich (NYCC); Richard Lewin (BYkids.org).
