STANDING Brooklyn’s Biggest Booster
Caring club donates to help sick boy
BAY RIDGE
Hurray for the BenBay Kiwanis
Club for donating more than $1,000
to the family of a Bay Ridge child
battling a chronic disease. The donation
to the Leston family will help
them spread awareness about their
son’s disease, according to the boy’s
mother.
“Having the Kiwanis Club generously
help our family is helping me
and my husband spread awareness
about Liam’s disease,” says Megan
Leston. “We are incredibly grateful
for all of their help, and they’re continual
support.”
Liam Leston, a 5-year-old boy,
was diagnosed with Cri Du Chat Syndrome,
also known as Cat Cry Syndrome,
or 5p Minus Syndrome. Children
with this disease have reduced
muscle tone and have diffi culty moving.
Other characteristics include
feeding diffi culties, asthma, and signifi
cant cognitive delays.
Children born with this disease
require ongoing support from a team
of caregivers, which is expensive.
“We are so grateful that we can
help out the Leston family,” said
Thomas Aellis, the BenBay Kiwanis
Executive Board Member. “We look
forward to spreading awareness of
this, and some future fund-raisers
are in the works.”
— Maya Harrison
BOROUGH WIDE
Pitch perfect
A Brooklyn auteur scored a whopping
$100,000 to fund his next fi lm
project amid a pitch contest to promote
black media.
Keith McQuirter’s idea for a documentary
exploring mass incarceration
in Wisconsin, called “The 3,000
Project,” nabbed the grand prize at
PitchBlack for his critical focus on
an issue that overwhelmingly and
disproportionately affects African
Americans, according to a contest offi
cial.
“Keith’s project is a very deserving
one,” said Leslie Fields-Cruz,
executive director of Black Public
COURIER L 32 IFE, MAY 10–16, 2019 M BR B G
Media, which organized the event.
McQuirter’s upcoming look at the
inequity of incarceration in Wisconsin
— where blacks made up 43 percent
of the male and 21 percent of
the female prison population in 2017,
despite representing only about six
percent of state residents — follows
MANHATTAN BEACH
Three cheers for winners of Assemblyman
Steven Cymbrowitz’s
19th annual Holocaust Memorial
Creative Arts Contest.
The winning writers were honored
on Sunday during a ceremony
at Kingsborough Community
College that featured remarks by
a nationally recognized spiritual
leader and stirring musical performances
by Brooklyn high school
students.
The contest attracted hundreds
of entries from elementary, middle,
and high schools.
All of the winning projects
were submited on behalf of the entire
school. First place in the intermediate
school category ended
in a tie between IS 98 and IS 209.
PS 195 took fi rst place for an elementary
school, with PS 255 taking
second, and PS 206 coming in
third. IS 228 came in third for intermediate
school.
During his remarks before an
audience of 500, Cymbrowitz (DSheepshead
Bay) told the story of
his late parents, Sonia and Sam,
who met as children in Demblin,
Poland, and were sent with family
members to a slave labor camp
when the Nazis came. Demblin’s
entire Jewish population ended
up in labor camps or concentration
camps.
“It’s not easy to listen to
these stories, but it’s very important
that we continue to tell
them,” Cymbrowitz told the students.
“With the passage of time,
there are fewer and fewer people
who bore witness to the Holocaust.
The survivors need all of
us to carry on their mission and
make sure that the Holocaust
stays vivid in our hearts and
minds. That’s why it’s critically
important that our children learn
about the Holocaust and listen to
survivors’ stories whenever possible,”
he said.
The ceremony featured keynote
remarks by Rabbi Andy Bachman,
executive director of JCP
Downtown and a nationally recognized
spiritual leader and social
entrepreneur.
Cymbrowitz also presented
Holocaust Remembrance Day
Assembly resolutions to Met
Council, recognizing its work
with Holocaust survivors, and
the Kingsborough-Manhattan
Beach Holocaust Memorial
Center. Met Council displayed
a photo exhibit at the ceremony
featuring the artwork of survivors.
Highlighting the event was stirring
musical performances by the
Edward R. Murrow Senior Chorus
and Symphonic Band.
his 2017 fi lm, “Milwaukee 53206,”
which explores the lives of people living
in the zip code with the nation’s
highest incarceration rates of black
men.
In addition to scoring the $100,000
in funding, McQuirter nabbed a license
agreement to distribute his upcoming
fi lm.
PitchBlack is the culmination of a
13-week incubator for broadcast programs,
web series, and virtual reality
projects, which awarded a grand
total of $320,000 in funding for projects
across all categories.
— Colin Mixson
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS
Law talk
Standing O salutes the
Brooklyn Bar Association,
which held an information session
for legal eagles about the
state’s Child Support program
on May 1.
The Brooklyn Heights legal
group kicked off the presentations
with opening statements
by Immediate Past President
Aimee Richter, and was moderated
by Kings County Supreme
Court Justice Esther Morgenstern,
who was joined by a
lineup of presenters at the organization’s
Remsen Street headquarters.
The speakers included Deputy
Commissioner for Human
Resources Administration’s
Offi ce of Child Support Services
Elizabeth Kumar, Executive
Director for Enforcement
Operations for the administration’s
Offi ce of Child Support
Services Michael Pocchia,
Associate General Counsel for
its Offi ce of Legal Affairs
Spiredoula Viglis, and Senior
Agency Attorney for its Offi ce
of Legal Affairs Aaron Friedman.
The support program offers
parents help getting fi nancial
support and medical insurance
coverage for their children by
fi nding parents, establishing
paternity and support orders,
and collecting and distributing
child support payments.
— Kevin Duggan
WINNING WRITERS: The students from Bay Academy (pictured) shared fi rst-place
honors in the intermediate school division with IS 209.
Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz’s offi ce
Students pen powerful essays