NIGHTLIGHT: JBFCS Gala April 23, 2012 at The Plaza Raises $2.2 Million with Record-Setting Attendance of Over 500
Jean and Martin Shafiroff
The band
Cocktail Hour
On Monday, April 23, 2012 JBFCS - Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services - held their spring benefit at The Plaza Hotel in New York honoring Joyce Cowin, Fran Levy and Julie Menin. Melissa Russo, WNBC News Anchor, was the master of ceremonies and the event was well-attended and in fact, record breaking as over 500 were there. $2.2 million was raised.
"This is the largest social service and mental health charity in the state of New York. We serve 60,000 New Yorkers among the five boroughs of the city and 60-70% are not Jewish," said Board Member Jean Shafiroff. Jean has been on the Board for twenty years of JBFCS. Jean continues, "Our budget is approximately $175 to $180 million each year. We have 175 programs and four domestic violence shelters. We have residential treatment facilities. Also, we have a program for Iraqi war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. We have outpatient clinics; we serve those suffering from AIDS. We serve the aged, mentally ill, many, many different groups and most of the programs don't have the name JBFCS. I'm on the Board; I'm not Jewish. We receive large government funding. Most of our funding is from government. We work very closely with the city and the state of New York."
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Their site tells us:
JBFCS has one mission - to get help to those who need it. JBFCS offers more than 175 social service and mental health programs to all New Yorkers. The depth and breadth of our programming is matched only by the diversity of the population we serve. As we reflect on more than a century of service, we see mirrored in our own image the face of the city itself -- made up of myriad races and ethnicities, of the indigent, the working poor and the middle class, of young people and elders. What unites every one of us -- our staff, our clinicians, and the people we serve -- is a common understanding of our personal and family challenges and the mutual aspiration toward a satisfying life for all, regardless of social, economic, or health status.
