Groundwork Inaugural Fall Benefit

This past Wednesday I attended Groundwork's inaugural fall benefit. For those that don't know, my feature article will focus on Groundwork, a East New York-based non-profit that provides services to community youth and families, and the venture philanthropists that provided the organization with its seed money. Groundwork is now in its fifth year of operation and the benefit represented an opportunity to reach out to new funders, an important moment that I wanted to document for my story.

The benefit was held at the Allen Room on the fifth floor of the Time Warner Building. It began with a cocktail reception where those who came would bid on items for a silent auction. This was my first chance to meet Rich Buery, founder and executive director of Groundwork. Rich grew up in East New York, went to high school in Manhattan, before going to Harvard then Yale Law. As you'd expect on a night like this, Rich was in constant motion, greeting attendees, nodding and talking, shaking hands and taking pictures. There was a diverse crowd there, and some of the teachers, administrators and even students from Groundwork had come (the students came in from East New York with some teachers on a bus). David Adekoya, whom I filmed for my web video and was a keynote speaker that night, came in a brilliant white suit jacket. I remember David telling me that many of the kids in East New York spend all their time in their neighborhood, and that Groundwork is a way out, an avenue to see something different, even what they see is only another part of New York. He even recounted how some of the things he saw in Mahattan surprised him - he'd expected everyone to be in business and therefore dressed up in suits and the like, and didn't expect that there would be people dressed like how people in East New York were dressed, casually. I can't imagine what it was like for the high school students there that night - I'd never gone to this kind of thing when I was their age.

After a while the crowd moved into the actual room, where tables were set out on the tiers of the half circle that looked toward the stage, behind which was the most magnificent view of Columbus Circle, Broadway, and Central Park, all brightened by the nighttime lights of cars and fountain lights and lit buildings and lamp posts. Against this backdrop Rich, Silda Wall Spitzer (The governor's wife) and a few others spoke, before the crowded reconvened back in the reception area for more drinks.