SoBRO 36th Anniversary Gala Dinner and
Auction co-chairman , Simon Bergson, Chairman
of the Board of the South Bronx Overall Economic
Development Corporation and his co-chair Mark
Castle of the Bank of New York, Mellon along
with SoBRO ’s President & CEO Phillip Morrow
welcomed several hundred guests to their annual
celebration of helping to build a better Bronx. As
usual, the gala pulled in a hefty crowd of business,
real estate, education and political leaders – and
of course New York Yankees!
For
over three and a half decades, SoBRO has been
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life in the
South Bronx by strengthening businesses, creating
and implementing innovative economic and housing
initiatives, and providing quality education and
career development programs for youth and adults
Honored at the Gala were several
individuals and businesses that have demonstrated a
clear commitment to SoBRO’s mission, including:
Turner Construction, for their commitment to
hiring local residents and so willingly sharing
their success with the community; NYC Council
Member, Maria del Carmen Arroyo, for her
unfaltering support of the community’s shared
interests; Jeanne B. Mullgrav,
Commissioner of the NYC Department of Youth and
Community Development, whose efforts have
allowed SoBRO and hundreds
of other community organizations to maintain and
expand life-changing youth and adult education
programs; and Sultana Distribution Services,
Brian Gold, CEO, another local business that
has demonstrated a strong commitment to the ideals
at the core of SoBRO’s mission. A special award was
also presented to All star baseball player second
baseman Roberto Alomar.
His good friend and former Yankees teammate
Darryl Strawberry accepted the award on his
behalf.
Following the cocktail reception,
guests dined on a menu of Caprese salad, Filet
Mignon with peppercorn cognac sauce, salmon in lemon
butter with a warm fennel, roasted corn and tomato
salad followed by chocolate mousse cake with mango &
berry compote.
Phillip
delighted to see so many friends and longtime
supporters introduced emcee Bill Evans, the
popular meteorologist at WABC – TV who had recently
visited The Bronx to see first hand the
extraordinary work SoBRO has done to transform The
Bronx. So impressed was Evans that he donated a
special auction prize
- a tour of
WABC-TV for up to 30 including teachers and
chaperones (if a class wins), with the opportunity
to sit on the news set and watch the Noon Newscast
live, plus one person will get to do the 5-day
forecast with Bill when they go out live on location
and do the weather. Bill proved to be not only a
humorous but masterful auctioneer selling his behind
the scenes package four times when bidding became
fierce!
Bill’s pals from WABC-TV were out in full force
including co-anchors Lori Stokes and Ken
Rosato, fellow meteorologist Jeff Smith
and producer Mark Crudele.
Also
lending their support were School Chancellor Joel
Klein, City Councilman Robert Jackson, Controller
Bill Thompson and Congressman Charles Rangel.
The Gala Committee included Stephanie Burns, Jo
Ann Hill, Craig Livingston, Blondel Pinnock, Anthony
Riccio, Amnon Shalov, Gail & Joel Steinberg,
Franklin Weiss, Esq. and
Jean Smith.
The
evening was also a chance for SoBRO to celebrate a
number of success stories in a variety of ways.
Students from Evander Childs High School in a
special theater arts program performed an excerpt of
a from an original musical First Prince of Western
High,
Samantha Dickson performed a musical
interlude; teens from the Bronx Leadership Academy
studying photography showed two short student
created films and Chanel Thornton, a graduate
of SoBRO’s Youth Build program was applauded for
having overcome a host of issues to graduate from
high school. As is tradition, The Bartlett
Contemporaries provide their soulful tunes for
dancing following the awards.
www.sobro.org