New York Restoration Project (NYRP) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the urban environment by reclaiming and restoring parks, community gardens and public space in underserved neighborhoods throughout New York City's five boroughs. Since I started this organization in 1995, NYRP has achieved dramatic results by investing in the cleaning and greening of some of New York’s most environmentally challenged areas while engaging thousands of families and urban youth in environmental education programs and volunteer events; planting hundreds of thousands of trees, shrubs and flowers; removing more than 2100 tons of garbage and debris from project sites and city roadways; saving 52 community gardens from commercial development; transforming an illegal dumping ground into Swindler Cove Park, a beautiful waterfront oasis and outdoor nature center; building the adjacent Peter Jay Sharp Boathouse on the Harlem River; and working in partnership with the City of New York in leading MillionTreesNYC, in the largest urban reforestation campaign in the United States.
Japan Society is an American nonprofit organization supported by individuals, foundations and corporations, that brings the people of Japan and the United States closer together through mutual understanding, appreciation and cooperation. More than a hundred years after the Society's founding, its goal remains the same—the cultivation of a constructive, resonant and dynamic relationship between the people of the U.S. and Japan.
After the earthquake and tsunami in japan, no one was prepared for the dire situation on the ground. I found Japan Society to be the most trustworthy of all the organizations through which funnel my donations. So far, all their donations have been committed to four nonprofit organizations in Japan—the Tokyo Volunteer Network for Disaster Relief, JEN, Entrepreneurial Training for Innovative Communities (ETIC), and the Japan NPO Center—all on the front lines of relief and recovery in Tohoku.
I have supported Midori & Friends over eight years. They do tremendous work by providing high quality music education programs to underserved children in New York City's public school system; providing musical opportunities for children, regardless of their ability, education, or economic background. They don’t just send musicians to demonstrate, they actually put instruments in the children’s hands and send dedicated musicians to teach them to play. It’s a fantastic program. In 2009-10 approximately 13,000 children citywide participated through in-school and after-school music instruction programs, family/community workshops at schools and community sites, an annual Children's Music Festival, and other special events.
Adopt-A-Highway is a program for devoted and enlightened New Yorkers to give back to their community by ensuring clean and beautiful roadways for all to enjoy. For an annual fee, segments of a major highway can be adopted by individuals, companies or organizations and will be kept free from litter, mowed and maintained. You can even have landscaping! Since 1995, I have supported sections of the Long Island Expressway, Bronx River Parkway, Harlem River Drive, prominent stretches of the Henry Hudson Parkway and I still maintain the formerly dirtiest mile in the city, on the Major Deegan Expressway right in front of Yankee Stadium.
Handicap International is an independent and impartial aid organization that responds to civil conflicts and natural disasters in distressed countries around the world. They serve people with disabilities and vulnerable populations, and assist in survivors' recovery and reintegration. Following the earthquake that devastated Haiti on January 12th, 2010, I felt I had to do something and I turned to Handicap International. Their actions have centered on the long-term assistance of the injured, amputees and paralyzed and the supply of transitional shelters.
TYWLS was established to nurture the intellectual curiosity and creativity of young women and to address their developmental needs. Learning is dynamic and participatory, enabling students to experience great success on many levels, especially in science, mathematics and technology. Students are encouraged to achieve their personal best in and out of the classroom. TYWLS strives to work with families to instill in the students a sense of community, responsibility, and ethical principles of behavior - characteristics that will help make them leaders of the next generation.
I am new to Citymeals on Wheels. They serve a population that is practically invisible in New York City, the homebound and elderly.
One of the largest meals on wheels programs in the U.S., Citymeals raises private funds to make sure this population will not go a day without food or human company. I sometimes think the company is more important than the food. Last year, contributors helped bring over 2 million nutritious meals to over 16,000 frail aged in every borough of New York City. Along with delivering nutritionally balanced senior meals, Citymeals coordinates thousands of devoted volunteers to provide human companionship.
lowernine.org is a terrific nonprofit home rebuilding organization working to revitalize the once-thriving historic Holy Cross neighborhood of New Orleans's historic Lower Ninth Ward. Since 2007, the organization has been helping local residents rebuild their homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina, while offering construction training for locals and volunteers from across the United States. It is such a thrill to see people return to their homes in what was one of the most wonderful cities in America.