More than 10,000 people voted for the first Brooklyn Do-Gooders award sponsored by the Brooklyn Community Foundation.
“Do Good Right Here,” is the motto of the BCF and the the first annual Brooklyn Do Gooder Awards celebrate “altruism, philanthropy and commitment of five Brooklyn Do Gooders who are working toward a stronger Brooklyn.”
In September they invited the greater Brooklyn community to submit nominations for people who are making a positive contribution to their communities. Then there was a public voting period from October 1-October 15, 2010.
Now the finalists have been selected by the public voting and judges will select five winners from among 20 finalists. On November 3, 2010 at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden there will be ceremony to honor the winners.
Click on read more below to see a list of the finalists. One person from each of the five categories (Arts for Everyone, Caring Neighbors, Education and Youth Achievement, Community Development and Green Communities) will be chosen as Brooklyn Do-Gooder of the Year.
The following descriptions of the nominees are from the Do-Gooder website:
Arts for Everyone
* Sister Kay Crumlish has spearheaded arts programs at the Mercy Home for Children for children with autism spectrum disorders to assist both children and their families who often cannot find appropriate recreational activities.
* Lynn Parkerson created the Brooklyn Ballet, a professional dance company, school and educational outreach program which reflects the borough’s unique diversity and brings a new form of ballet to many who might otherwise never experience it.
* Chinita Pointer has provided music education and helped connect youth to higher education in Central Brooklyn, an area with some of the Nation’s highest unemployment rates and lowest high school graduation rates as the Executive Director of the Noel Pointer Foundation.
* John Strohbeen has dedicated his life to making art accessible to everyone. As president of the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, he works to help emerging artists advance their careers and make contemporary visual art accessible to NYC.
Caring Neighbors
* Leticia Alanis is helping create indigenous leadership in Sunset Park’s Mexican-American community as the new director of La Union de la Comunidad Latina, which works to advance economic and social justice for new immigrants.
* Tony Gentile is a native Brooklynite who supports the important work of many community nonprofits by hosting benefits, toy and food drives, and sponsoring local events as owner of the Lone Star Bar and Grill.
* Denise Rosario helps find alternative homes for children who are abused or neglected by a parent, relative, or family friend in Bushwick and its surrounding neighborhoods through her work at the Coalition for Hispanic Family Services.
* Melony Samuels has worked to end hunger in her community, helping provide 10,000 meals to families living in poverty as Founder and Executive Director of the Bed Stuy Campaign Against Hunger.
Community Development
* Chip Cafiero, a former school teacher is a go-to person for Bay Ridge’s community events, coordinating parades and festivals, protecting the community, helping to preserve parks and educating local youth.
* Linda Sarsour, founder of the Arab American Association of NY, organizes voter registration drives and workshops on the importance of voting and engaging in the electoral process for her community, among other initiatives.
* Brad Smith is a Brooklynite who has been working for 17 years as a Big Apple Greeter volunteer, welcoming over 2,000 visitors to Brooklyn, sharing his passion for its vibrant, culturally and ethnically diverse neighborhoods.
* Hizam Wahib helps immigrants navigate through the difficult process of becoming United States citizens by providing advice and translation services for non-English speaking clients through his work with the Arab-American Family Support Center.
Education and Youth Acheivement
* Sharon Content is the founder of Children of Promise NYC, an after school program and summer day camp specifically designed to meet the needs of children of imprisoned parents.
* David Goldsmith, a small business owner, helped transform an under-populated public school into a desirable neighborhood school as the former PTA president of PS 8 in Brooklyn Heights and is helping the Urban Assembly Academy of Arts & Letters as Parents’ Association president.
* Bro. Abu Muhammad has dedicated twenty-five plus years to youth empowerment and academic achievement and is the founder of Pyramid Youth Incentive Inc., a community-based organization at Bedford Academy High School in Bedford Stuyvesant.
* Barnabas Shakur of Bedford Stuyvesant provides employment and volunteer opportunities to disconnected youth as well as mentorship and tools to promote educational advancement, achievement and community building.
Green Communities
* Murad Awawdeh is an American-born Palestinian who has worked as an organizer and environmental justice advocate for over thirteen years within his community and for the United Puerto Rican Organization of Sunset Park (UPROSE).
*Jed Marcus, a lawyer, started and coordinates Green Fort Greene & Clinton Hill, a volunteer effort to broadly reduce the community’s contribution to global warming and to trim its use of non-renewable resources.
* Zenobia McNally is helping increase access to affordable, healthy food and promote environmentalism through her community garden and EcoFairs through her work with East Flatbush’s Lott Street Block Association and beyond,
* Anne-Katrin Titze of Prospect Lefferts Gardens is an activist who started a wave of community support by rescuing ducks, geese and swans from fishing lines and pollution in Prospect Park.