Partnership with Children works with more than 50 public schools in New York City’s highest-need communities so that every student can beat the trauma and stress of growing up in poverty and every school can successfully serve its students.
On Thursday, June 4th, Partnership with Children hosted its Annual Spring Gala, raising $1.1 million dollars to support its social work services for more than 17,000 New York City school children. The Gala’s lead sponsors included Marty and David Hamamoto, NorthStar Realty Finance Corp., MacAndrews & Forbes, Royalty Pharma and Verizon Foundation.
At the Gala, Mark Dowley, Chief Strategy Officer at MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated and Chairman of DDCD & Partners, and Marianne Gambelli, Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer of Horizon Media, were all honored for their career and community leadership. Board member Kenneth Mortenson was presented with The Anne Vanderbilt Award for Achievement was presented to Board member Kenneth Mortenson for his distinguished service. As the honorees were presented that all spoke about the importance of the Partnership with Children is for children who are not as fortunate as other children.
Ricky Sanders, a student, spoke how he was “one of the lucky ones as Partnership with Children changed the course of my life.” Because of Partnership with Children, he is graduating from high school and will be the first male in his family to attend college.
Besides the honorees and speakers that were presented, the Gala included a live auction with CK Swett, which was a huge success raising over $100,000 in just five minutes from the generous crowd. As the evening closed, Herve Alexandre, a New York City saxophonist and winner of multiple Apollo Amateur Awards, performed with The S.F. Crew.