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JANUARY 2005

Lorenz Adderley

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 Dream”¨ 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 Dream”¨ 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 Dream”¨ 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.

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