Eugene Lang’s
Vision Makes Dreams Come True
The Chairman of Newmark,
a leading commercial real estate firm, Jeffrey Gural, recently
offered to 40 first-graders who live in the Elliott Houses,
a public housing development in Manhattan’s
Chelsea neighborhood, the most incredible gift of their young
lives at P.S. 33 in Chelsea. Gural and the “I Have
a DreamӬ Foundation of New York announced
a fantastic offer—free after-school programming, extracurricular
enrichment, tutoring and mentoring through the 12th grade
and the promise of assured tuition assistance for higher
education upon completion of high school. In return, the
first-graders committed to being “Dreamers” and
all that it entails—not dropping out of school, working
hard, and going to college or vocational school.
The group of Chelsea-Elliott
Dreamers was the 29th group adopted by “I Have a Dream”¨ Sponsors
in New York City since 1981 when Eugene Lang adopted the
first group at P.S. 121 in East Harlem. Nationally, the “I
Have a DreamӬ Program has helped more
than 14,000 students from low-income communities through
its long-term program of mentoring, tutoring, and enrichment
and its promise of assured tuition assistance. “I Have
a DreamӬ Sponsors, like Gural, make
a 10-15 year commitment when they adopt a grade of children
from a school or same-age group from a public housing development.
A team of paid staff and volunteers support the Dreamers
throughout their primary and secondary school years. In addition
to the children’s commitment, the involvement of families,
school officials, teachers and other community leaders is
vital to the Program’s success.
The new Chelsea-Elliott Project
is made possible by the contributions of Gural; Howard Kaye;
Joey Jacobs; Frank Williams and the New York City Housing Authority
(NYCHA). Over the next 10-14 years, the Sponsors will contribute
$250,000 annually for the second Chelsea-Elliott Project as
well as over $1 million for college scholarships. NYCHA, which
has already supported four “I Have a Dream”¨ Projects
in Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx, will contribute $50,000
a year to the second Chelsea-Elliott Project.
This is the second group
of students to whom Gural and Kaye made this incredible commitment
and “adopted” at
the Chelsea-Elliott Houses through the “I Have a Dream”¨ Foundation.
Next year, the same offer will be made to children of Elliott
Houses residents who will be in the first-grade during the
2005-06 school year. In 1993, Gural, Kaye and three other
like-hearted New Yorkers adopted 96 second and third-graders
at the public housing site. By this spring, over 85 percent
of those students would have graduated or earned their GED;
81 percent of the graduates have taken up Gural’s promise
and have enrolled in college or vocational school. Typically,
40 percent of students in non-“I Have a Dream”¨ peer
groups in New York City are expected to graduate high school.
During the commitment ceremony,
Gural shared with Dreamer parents, community members and supporters, “The
whole object of ‘I Have a Dream’¨ is
to get the kids to college. We look forward to getting to know
you better. In fifteen years from now, we’ll be at your
college graduations.”#
For more information, visit www.ihad.org.
