Last night, the East Side House Settlement held their annual Gala Preview of the NY Auto Show at the Jacob Javitts Center. Guests were treated to a full three-hour cocktail reception with hor d’ourves and dinner supplied by Abigail Kirsch. Throughout the cocktail part of the evening, we were allowed to wander through the sea of shiny, spanking new vehicles while jamming to the sounds of DJ David Chang!
Although I don’t drive (my UK best friend likes to say that I was always driven!), I am mad for cars! This year, I actually plan to learn to drive, as I simply must have a convertible Mini-Cooper, which I felt so comfortable behind the wheel of! I also love the new VW convertible beetle and, although there were none on display, my dream car is still the Tesla! It was a blast checking out all of the cars and a special treat to see Speed Racer’s Mach 5 from the 2008 film!
The East Side Settlement House, a leading social services agency in the Mott Haven section of the South Bronx, helps 8,000 community residents improve their lives each year by providing access to quality education and technology programs. This is no small challenge. Mott Haven is located within the poorest Congressional District in the entire United States. 80.6% of the children are born into poverty, 45% of all of the residents live below the federal poverty guidelines, 1 in 4 women and 2 out of 3 men are out of work, and the highest number of teens in NYC, between the ages of 16-19, are both unemployed and out of school! East Side House currently operates two high schools in partnership with the NYC Department of Education – Mott Haven Village Prep and Bronx Haven High School – where more students than ever before are beating these odds by graduating and going to college. More than 100 of those students have also received the scholarship assistance necessary to attend university. Programs also include early childhood education, after-school programs, adult education, computer technology programs, and family services.
Major contributors to the evening included Goldman Sachs, Caxton Associates, Chris Carrera and Emily Chen, National Australia Bank, Prudential Bache Commodities, Willowbridge Associates, The Greater NY Automobile Dealers Association, New York Magazine, Hays Ventures LLC, HSBC Global Markets, MF Global Inc., Peregrine, and of course, the New York Auto Show.
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