YNY GIVES BACK

YNY believes that giving back to the communities we are a part of is an essential component of our business. Whether it’s funding college scholarships for deserving young people to providing women going through cancer treatment with some basic creature comforts and assistance, we are engaged in a range of philanthropic initiatives that make all of us here at YNY extremely proud. The following are just a few of the ways in which YNY gives back (and if there’s a worthy group or project you think we should be aware of, please don’t hesitate to email us).

Books Still Matter

A Project of The Yoswein Foundation

“Books Still Matter” is a YNY philanthropic initiative that each holiday season collects and donates thousands of new children’s books to families in Brooklyn public housing developments.  The hope is that “Books Still Matter” can play even just a small part in helping to close the literacy gap for NYC school kids and fostering a life-long love of reading.  While technologies such as tablets and smart phones certainly have a place in children’s lives, we are unabashedly old-school in our focus on creating a love of good old fashioned printed, hard copy books…books that children can hold, feel, smell and call their very own.  If you have new children’s books to donate or would like to suggest new distribution partners, please contact us.

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Latke Appreciation Night

The signature annual event supporting Books Still Matter is YNY’s Latke Appreciation Night.  Hosted during the holiday season – and most recently at the legendary Montero’s Bar in Brooklyn – Latke Night invites YNY family, friends, clients, and colleagues to donate new children’s books while enjoying Glenn’s legendary homemade latkes. Each year, thousands of books are distributed to young people in public housing across Brooklyn, focused on everyone from Peter Pan, Rosa Parks, and Michelle Obama, to Harry Potter, Dr. Martin Luther King, Thomas Edison, and Ferdinand the Bull; from “Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women” to “My First Book of Puppies;” and it wouldn’t be Books Still Matter without classics by Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein, and Maurice Sendak. 

Margarita Appreciation Night

YNY’s annual Girls Night Out/Margarita Appreciation Night, which recently celebrated its 18th annual event, not only provides an opportunity for professional women from throughout New York’s civic and business communities to network and share their experiences with one another, but the evening also raises funds for organizations that make a real impact in our communities. Each year, 100% of contributions raised at Margarita Appreciation Night go directly to that year’s benefit organization to support programming that impacts communities in Brooklyn and beyond. Past events have raised more than $100,000 for an array of organizations, including:

Bed-Stuy Campaigns Against Hunger

Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger is one of New York City’s most highly-regarded food pantries and social service organizations, which provides critically important services to thousands of mothers and their children each year.  The Bed-Stuy emergency food pantry serves 30,000 low income New Yorkers each month, with a major commitment to providing single mothers and their families with both food and social service support.  Their mobile food pantry continues to support communities hardest hit by Superstorm Sandy (including the Rockaways) and their social service programs include health and nutritional initiatives, along with financial literacy and SNAP enrollment projects focused on helping women achieve independence.

The Healing Center

The Healing Center is a not-for-profit organization that provides services to women and families impacted by tragedy of domestic violence. The organization’s programs – ranging from empowerment groups and community education to an innovative support program specifically for teenage girls – provide impacted women and their families with a wide range of support services that seek to break the cycle of abuse and provide a clear path to healing.

Maimonides Breast Cancer Center

The Brooklyn Breast Cancer Program at the Maimonides Cancer Center is Brooklyn’s first, fully dedicated breast cancer center that offers advanced treatment that saves lives in a new healing environment that affirms life. The Center offers comprehensive screening, diagnostic, medical and surgical breast services, as well as nutrition and genetics counseling, and a full array of psycho-social support for patients and families. They are deeply committed to offering their patients every significant advantage in their battle against breast disease by providing them with the highest level of quality breast care.

Red Hook Initiative

The Red Hook Initiative is a Brooklyn community-based organization that provides residents of Red Hook, Brooklyn (primarily residents of the Red Hook Houses) with job training and employment opportunities. The Red Hook Houses is a community that has struggled with poverty, unemployment, and low levels of high school completion. The Red Hook Initiative works to confront and affect the consequences of poverty through an approach that offers support in education, employment, health and community development. In return, the residents create their own programs and provide support services to their neighbors, family, and friends.

YNY Turkey Classic Golf Outing

In support of the Genovesi Scholarship

YNY Thanksgiving Classic golf outing – launched a decade ago as an only-of-its-kind charity golf event held the week before Thanksgiving – raises funds for the Anthony J. Genovesi Scholarship at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, NY.  The “Turkey Classic,” as it has come to be fondly known, attracts more than 100 civic and business leaders to play golf in potentially sub-freezing November temperatures to raise scholarship funds for needy students and to honor the memory of our dear friend, the late Assemblyman Tony Genovesi. We are incredibly proud of the tens of thousands of dollars we have raised over the years are honored to have helped numerous young people – many of whom were the first generation in their families to attend college – achieve their dreams.

Turkey Couture

Participants at the YNY Turkey Classic have gone home with an amazing array of great hats and jackets over the years, all of which can all be found at www.turkeycouture.com. In addition, the legendary YNY Classic ties featured on the site remain available for purchase to support the Genovesi Scholarship (with 100% of the proceeds supporting students).