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December 4, 2001 New York
Robin Hood, one of the city's leading poverty-fighting organizations, today honored three New Yorkers at the twelfth annual Robin Hood Heroes Awards at Tavern on the Green. Mayor-Elect Michael Bloomberg spoke at the breakfast which was also attended by Jerry Seinfeld.
Each year Robin Hood honors outstanding people whose work is transforming the lives of the poorest New Yorkers. This honor is appropriately called the Hero Award. Each of the three Hero award recipients received a $50,000 honorarium from Robin Hood for their organization.
The 2001 Robin Hood Heroes are NYPD Detective Anthony DeMaria, a child abuse investigator at the Brooklyn Child Advocacy Center, Marina Bernard Damiba, Principal of the Bronx Prep Charter School, and John Ariza, a volunteer at Abraham House.
NYPD Detective Anthony DeMaria is one of the most successful investigators of child abuse in New York City. Able to gain both the trust of frightened children who have been abused and the offenders who have abused them, he has saved thousands of children from further torment by securing confessions from their abusers. Robin Hood honors Detective DeMaria for his extraordinary work at the Brooklyn Child Advocacy Center (BCAC) which handled 2,000 child abuse cases last year. The BCAC is an ambitious multi-disciplinary initiative of Safe Horizon which coordinates the efforts of police, prosecutors, child protection agencies, health care providers, and social workers under one roof to aid the victims of, and reduce the incidence of, child abuse. Robin Hood's support enabled the BCAC not only to open on evenings and weekends, times that are busy for intakes and productive for detective work, but to launch sites in Queens and Staten Island as well.
Marina Bernard Damiba is Principal of Bronx Prep, one of the emerging leaders in the charter school movement. In a neighborhood where crime, gangs, and delinquency are the norm, Marina Bernard Damiba's charisma, commitment to strong academics, and fierce dedication to her students has created an educational institution that's transforming lives. Robin Hood, one of Bronx Prep's first large funders, honors Marina for her visionary work and her determination to make her students believe in themselves and to dream. In a neighborhood where only 11% of the kids score at grade level, Bronx Prep has raised that figure to 71%. In its first year of operation, the math scores at the school went up 46% and the daily attendance rate is an impressive 97%.
John Ariza volunteers with his family each week at Abraham House, serving as an example of how dramatically a life can change. A former cab driver convicted of drug dealing, he was sentenced by an astute judge to three years at Abraham House instead of Attica. While there, John earned his GED and now is a married father of two who works as an office manager for a company that pays for him to study network technologies. Robin Hood honors John for his commitment to turning his life around and to Abraham House, which offers an alternative to incarceration for first time, non-violent offenders. Run by Sister Simone Ponnet, Abraham House has a small, intensive residential program, a family center offering social services to the relatives of inmates and ex-inmates, and a six-day a week, year-round after school program for the children of these families, ages 5 to 15. Compared to the 70% recidivism rate of prison inmates, only 1 of the 100 graduates of Abraham House's program has returned to jail.
As it does every year, Tavern on the Green donated their restaurant, staff, and services for the Robin Hood Heroes Awards Breakfast. Presenting the Robin Hood Heroes Awards were Robin Hood board members Stanley Druckenmiller, Dirk Ziff, Bob Pittman, Geoffrey Canada, Marie-Josee Kravis, and Paul Tudor Jones. Attending the breakfast were leaders from Wall Street, the government, and the entertainment, technology, and media industries, including Jerry Seinfeld, Tom Brokaw, and Mayor-Elect Michael Bloomberg.
Established in 1988, Robin Hood fights poverty in New York City by applying investment principles to charitable giving. Robin Hood searches for and supports the strongest, most effective programs helping the city's two million poor people build better lives for themselves and their families. The board of directors underwrites all administrative costs so that every penny can go directly to those who need it most.
The need for help is more urgent than ever before as demands for food, housing, job training, and health care have sky-rocketed since September 11th.
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