CDLH 2017 Spring Gala Journal

without them we would not have been able to achieve this dream. This is true especially for former Senator Dean G. Skelos whose support was vital to our project. Also, Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano and former Supervisor Kate Murray supported the project with special generosity. Former Mayor Wayne J. Hall helped to create recreational space outside. All of them will always have our gratitude for all they have done. There are also others who helped in many different ways. Welquis López opened the door to me with Senator Skelos and we are very grateful to him. Senator Skelos provided the seed funds of $1,500,000 to purchase the property and begin the architectural plans. David Boone gave many hours of support and financial advice to the project and he did not charge Círculo during all this time. Pat McCormack from the beginning of our history and throughout the process of the business plan to build the Center continued to support us with generosity and kindness. They will be in our hearts always and Círculo de la Hispanidad is forever grateful. I could not realize this dream without the support of former and current Board Members. They believed in me and trusted me. We worked and suffered throughout the process and we also celebrated together this fantastic accomplishment. Círculo Center, even with all the support mentioned above, could not be possible without the essential work, infinite dedication, intelligence and passion of Sarah Brewster. Sarah is a blessing arriving from the skies at Círculo in 1999; the best gift Círculo has received in our history. As the Founder and Executive Director, I understand the importance of Círculo’s staff and their contributions through our history. They supported the organization with their daily work and ensured that programs and activities have been implemented in a financially sound manner. Having good evaluations and audits allowed me to keep the dream alive. Gracias. A thousand thanks for all participants and sponsors over the years. You have helped us achieve our mission. I also want to express my gratitude to our 2017 participants and sponsors. Thank you to all our Honorees for accepting our invitation to be part of our history and supporting the Gala. Gracias. Círculo and of course Círculo Center is the result of all people and businesses who have supported us throughout the years. I want to thank the Gala’s Planning Committee for supporting our honorees and our Gala. Their support has been essential in the always stressful work of implementing a successful event. Thank you Círculo’s Board members, staff, colleagues, volunteers and friends for supporting the journal, the raffle and selling tickets. I also want to give a special thanks to Evelyn Tavarez, Gala Coordinator, as well as Nancy Iglesias, our consultant for the Gala. As always, I want to thank my family for their encouragement. They have helped me to face the many difficulties that I have encountered this past year and over the years. Gracias Sarah Brewster , my partner in work and in life. Gracias por todo, thank you for everything. You continue to inspire me and I enjoy working with you every day. Gracias to my deceased parents, brother, niece and sister-in-law. I miss them. They have always inspired me in my difficult times. I want to thank my three children, Deborah, Daniel and Gil Miguel for their support. They share not only my happy moments but also my challenging ones and they continue to give me encouragement to persevere. I have continued to enjoy spending time with my grandchildren, my precious Rebecca, Sofía, Giuliana, Isak, Gabriella and Sebastián.

Message from the Founder/Executive Director Círculo de la Hispanidad Gil Bernardino

We continue to work hard to maintain programs during this tumultuous time for nonprofit organizations. As you all know, needs have increased for many of our most vulnerable populations while resources have dwindled. This has made my job this year especially difficult. We worked hard to obtain new funding to support immigrants, youth, victims of domestic violence, individuals living with HIV and others with new programs but we were unsuccessful. Our current programs are stable so far. I am grateful for the continued support of these current funding sources that have enabled us to offer many important services to the Nassau County Community. We are working hard to find new sources of funding to support needed services. While it has been a difficult year for Círculo, we celebrate the news of Evergreen Charter School, a free public nontraditional school serving kindergarten to sixth grade I founded together with Dr. Sarah Brewster, and the support from Círculo de la Hispanidad and others. Both of us serve as volunteer members of the Board of Trustees. Last year we successfully expanded the school to serve children in sixth grade. This year, we are happy to report we renewed our charter for an additional five years thanks to the efforts of students, parents, administrators, members of the Board of Trustees and all staff, including instructional staff as well as support staff from maintenance, lunch aides, administrative assistance and our chef. This is exciting news for Evergreen. Finally, we also received approval from the New York State Education Department to expand our school to offer a seventh and eighth grade. The school will now serve children from k-8 grade with a capacity for 675 students. At the same time, we have about 400 students on the waiting list this year. You may ask why I report the news of Evergreen Charter School in my letter about Círculo. Círculo founded Evergreen; Evergreen would not have existed without Círculo. While we maintain separate boards and funding sources, we celebrate Evergreen’s success as our success. In conclusion, Evergreen’s vision of providing hope and a future for children’s right to an excellent education is the result of the same vision and mission of Círculo de la Hispanidad. To all of you supporters, in different ways, of Círculo de la Hispanidad, current and past, you have impacted the establishment of Evergreen Charter School by supporting our organization and I thank you for that reason in the name of the many students who are and will benefit throughout the years. I am grateful to our many supporters including Bank of America who supported us with a very special grant in 2015 of $200,000. Our organization received these funds over two years. We plan to use this grant to engage in succession planning, and building a strong foundation for our future under new leadership. This is a very difficult process and the right decisions must be made if we want to sustain what we have and move forward at the same time. We are very grateful to the Bank of America for this incredible financial support. I give thanks for the support of those who helped the development of our Green Gold Center. We celebrated the completion of construction on October 24, 2015. The celebration included the recognition of individuals whose support was so important to the development of the Center that

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