July 2021 Newsletter

Our top grant contributor Guru Krupa Foundation announcing that they have awarded us $15,000 for the 2021-2022 year. They increased their give of last year by $5,000 so that they could represent another school.  We also want to acknowledge and thank Lynne Persing and Corrie Verde for each contributing $2,500 to cover an additional school.

The CP the metamorphosis of a butterfly encompassing both sides of a doorway to the MOVE room which holds the huge equipment used by their clients. Joe and Josue also completed Mt. Loretto and it’s magnificent; the Canterbury House mural is huge and unbelievable and Zion Lutheran Church’s makeover is unique and exquisite.

Now through August we will be hosting our BACK TO SCHOOL SUPPLY DRIVE. See flyer below.We will be working very closely with Literacy Inc to distribute backpacks and supplies to ten schools in our community.  Monetary donations will also be accepted and we will shop at our local Staples to make bulk purchases. These donations can be made via PayPal or Venmo. (see below for details)

We were gifted new twin-sized comforters through World of Women. A tractor trailer truck stuffed with these nearly 1,000 donated comforters arrived from Buffalo and were divvied up among a number of organizations. We took some for some of the schools, some have gone to South Beach Psychiatric Center, UAME, New Lane Seniors, the homeless, and pantry pop-ups. There were representatives from many community outreach groups. Thank you to WOW, Helen Timari and Margaret Grandstaff for so generously inviting the GC to participate and take. We also have been gifted beautiful handmade children’s quilts by the Staten Island Quilters’ Guild. Merle Flamhaft and two of her talented sewers came over with the quilts plus bags of handmade children’s pillowcases and great activity packets made of placemats. This stuff is so beautiful and it takes so much time and effort to make everything. We thank them and can’t wait to distribute at holiday time. We also discussed other projects in which we could collaborate. I asked the ladies to make material/felt dolls (black and brown) to meet the desires of so many little girls.

The Staten Island Quilters Guild are also going to make wheelchair blankets for those who need that specialty.  Joe Meizlik is having a yard sale on August 1 at 52 DiMarco Place.

Joe’s next Pop-Up Food Pantry will be at the Tottenville site on August 3 from 10 to 1.

We have added Venmo as a payment method for donations.  Please use: @StatenIslandGivingCircle This is in addition to our PayPal option SIGivingCircle@aol.com

The winning ticket was purchased by Rosalind Diaz. This months winnings of $300 will be earmarked for a new project for Julius Walker’s teens in crisis. Julius, Joe Cohen and Evelyn are going to sit and brainstorm further, the first idea is to give these kids exposure by taking them out to dinner (there are 8 of them with Julius right now) maybe once a month. They need to see and experience what is available on Staten Island outside of their very cloistered environments. We will also talk about activities for them. Like Joe Cohen said, he and Julius are about second chances…..I love this idea and can’t wait to put it into gear. The winner donates to his/her favorite charity; it is not kept by the ticket holder. To participate, go to our website and donate via Venmo or PayPal. We suggest putting $50 (for five months or $100 for 10 months).

Bayway Refineries in NJ is awarding us with $3,250 from their two golf outings held at the beginning of June. We were lucky enough to be a recipient a couple of years ago as well; they are in NJ but they love what the SIGC does. We’ve made such an unbelievable connection with Bayway.

We went over to Cerebral Palsy with our idea to honor the front line workers there who tend to the adults 21 years old and older who attend their day program. While there for the Room Makeover project, we became keenly aware that the caregivers at CP were many and probably unrecognized. This proved to be a true intuition. So we went over to provide the 40 attendants, bus drivers and bus aides to a casual breakfast and to give each of them a $50 gift card. They came in one, two or three at a time and we thanked them and presented them with their little surprise. It was very gratifying and believe me they do jobs that none of us would ever dream of.  Some of these workers told that they’d been with CP for 25, 30 years. Their dedication to the clients (they call them individuals) is unwavering.  Link to SI Advance article

We awarded a $100 R.A.K. to John Nappi who helps Joe Meizlik load and haul his pop-up pantry goods every time. John drives the U-Haul rented by Joe and helps set up and distribute all the treasures.

Michele Yacovello 917.733.7937 myacovello@gmail.com Evelyn Kormanik 718.980.4862 sigivingcircle@aol.com