The All Stars Project
announced the naming of one of its four theatres on 42nd
Street the Helen Grunebaum Theatre in honor of the
late Helen Grunebaum, a beloved All Stars volunteer, theater
lover and patron on Saturday, June 26th.
A lifelong New Yorker,
Helen Grunebaum became an All Star in 2000. She was a
regular volunteer for the All Stars Project into her early
90s, taking the bus every week from her Upper East Side apartment to All Stars Project’s
performing arts complex on
West 42nd Street. She was the
oldest active volunteer with All Stars’ award-winning
Talented Volunteers program.
“Helen was a very special
person, a passionate supporter of inner-city youth
development who went above and beyond what was required
every week,” said Gabrielle L. Kurlander, president and CEO
of the All Stars Project. “She was a dear friend and a
member of the All Stars family, and played a key role in
creating a new kind of cultural center for
New York — a center that’s for
everyone, and is welcoming of the poor. We’re proud to
memorialize her independent philanthropic spirit by naming
one of our theatres in her honor.”
Helen became part of a
community where she could get to know and work with hundreds
of other volunteers and young people from the diverse
communities of the city. Helen was committed to creating
access to theatre and the arts for poor Black and Latino
youth. Her leadership support for the acquisition of the All
Stars Project’s performing arts center on
42nd Street in 2002 was critical
to the enduring success of the project.
“Growing up in Bed-Stuy,
Brooklyn, I didn’t interact with people like
Mrs. Grunebaum. We came from different worlds. When we met
at the All stars and we started talking, it just clicked.
She was a friend to hundreds of young people, and I hope
other people will follow her lead,” said
Antoine Joyce, co-Director of Hip Hop
Cabaret and All Stars alumnus.