At a time when many New Yorkers are struggling to make ends meet, the nonprofit The Alliance for Positive Change is hosting a virtual event on July 30 to support its vital food and nutrition programs, which provide free meals to New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS and other chronic illnesses.
The annual event, which normally goes by the moniker “Dining Out For Life,” will take place virtually this year in New York City due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dining Out For Life has been a widely successful international initiative that supports local HIV service nonprofits like Alliance.
Celebrity chef Ted Allen (pictured third from right) is an event ambassador this year. Credit: Alliance for Positive Change, 2018
On a dedicated day, restaurants around the nation donate a portion of their proceeds to these nonprofits. Last year, more than 50 local HIV service organizations partnered with 2,400+ participating restaurants, 4,500+ volunteers, and more than 300,000 diners to raise an astonishing $4.28 million for people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States and Canada.
This year, Alliance is hosting “Dining In For Life” and encouraging participants to order takeout from participating restaurants in lieu of an in-person event across New York City. By dining in, participants can stay safe while continuing to support local restaurants and the food programs of Alliance.
Alliance will designate funds raised to support its food and nutrition programming, which provides more than 28,000 –
hot meals and food pantry items each year and offers a lifeline to New Yorkers who often struggle to make ends meet. The program is core to Alliance’s network of support, and the organization has been witnessing an even greater demand for nutritious food during these challenging times.
“This year, the global coronavirus pandemic has created unprecedented economic hardship, and caused innumerable people to lose their jobs and livelihoods,” said Sharen Duke, Alliance CEO & Executive Director. “For nearly 30 years, Alliance has shown kindness and compassion and we will continue to do this now, as many of those we serve are facing even greater obstacles now to maintain their health. We are asking all New Yorkers to consider July 30 as a moment to help your fellow New Yorkers to feel better, live better, and do better.”
Diners can participate in Dining In For Life by ordering takeout on July 30 from –
Amata: 209 E 56th Street, New York, NY
Arabesque: 4 E 36th Street, New York, NY
Duke’s: 1596 2nd Avenue, New York, NY
Patrick’s Restaurant & Oyster Bar: 259 West 42nd Street, New York, NY
Sac’s Place – Kaufman Astoria Studios: 35-11 35th Avenue, Astoria, Queens, NY
Sazon Perez: 417 S 4th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
Staghorn Steakhouse: 315 W 36th Street, New York, NY
Yoon Haeundae Galbi: 8 W 36th Street, New York, NY
Our essential workers need fuel for their long, grueling shifts in NYC’s hospitals. We recognize three restaurants donating their time and efforts to help those who help us.
Brooklyn Chop House(150 Nassau St.) in FiDi is making food deliveries to their neighborhooding hospital, New York Presbyterian, nightly for as long as the restaurant’s doors are open. They’re offering their most popular dishes to the staff that is working tirelessly to ensure NYC citizens safety, including nurses, doctors, surgeons and more for being the true heroes during this pandemic.
Since word of their generosity has spread, almost a dozen other hospitals have reached out to Brooklyn Chop House for help, including Sloan Kettering, NY Presbyterian, Cornell Weill, and Lenox Hill. Without hesitation, the owners said they’d make meals for their workers too, as well as Elmhurst Hospital. They are also offering 20% off for all first responders picking up meals at the downtown hotspot.
Courtesy Brooklyn Chop House
Loulou, the newly opened French bistro in Chelsea, began delivery to ICU doctors and nurses two weekends ago and plans to continue their efforts during the coming weeks. When the world changed, co-owner Loulou Mathias Van Leyden had to decide whether or not to close his less than a month old restaurant completely. He and his partners ultimately decided to fight and began delivery and takeout. He went a step further by delivering meals to New York Presbyterian/Columbia University ICU staff members on Sunday, March 22nd because of a fundraiser set up by Seven Rooms and now he’s continuing this endeavor.
Loulou is asking for help through donations where 100% of the proceeds will go to preparing and delivering meals to doctors during this time. The restaurant made additional deliveries to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital and Mount Sinai. To donate you can visit: https://www.gofundme.com/f/meals-for-hardworking-icu-doctors-during-covid19
The vegan, plant-based and kosher chain Beyond Sushi in NYC delivered their first set of hospital meals to 42 health care workers at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens this past Wednesday (April 1st) as the result of a community fundraiser that was organized on the hospital’s behalf. The restaurant’s owners, Guy and Tali Vaknin, will now start a fundraiser of their own where for every $200 raised, they’ll send another care package of individual meals to a local hospital and are kicking things off with a donated delivery of their own at Metropolitan Hospital later this week.
Today Johnny Dynamite (Whiner, Ashjesus) releases Wannabe, a dreamy, 80s-infused B-side from his 2020 album Heartbroken.
Wannabe is ethereal and transcendent: a welcome, if melancholic motif for these chaotic times. It fits right at home in a veil-straddling David Lynch diaspora, its thoughtful and shimmering synth reminiscent of a late 80s college radio discovery at the midnight hour.
“I wrote it before I thought about going solo, before I took on the name Johnny Dynamite,” he says. “It’s a track about self reflection, inward thoughts, and finding peace within. I never felt like I had a real home. I grew up on Staten Island and I moved around a bunch. Then I left to go to college in New Paltz, where I lived for 4 years. I moved back down to NYC after, and at the time, home felt like nature. The line, “I say to myself, ‘you’d be alone if you were someone else’, I wannabe alone”, reflects the loss of self when you have no place to call home. I felt an emotional attachment reflecting on this song right now, because I left NYC as soon as there was a mention of a quarantine. I’m currently down in Maryland staying with my girlfriend at her parents’. Coincidentally, this is also the state I finished recording the song in.’
Dynamite read that the CDP was starting a COVID-19 Response Fund and immediately wanted to help.
“I was already planning to release a B-side on Friday on Bandcamp, who are waiving their revenue that day to help all affected artists. After reading the article on the CDP, I decided that all the proceeds I get from my song will go to the response fund. We’re in some bizarre times right now and we all need to work together to get through this. The donations will focus on supporting hourly wage workers, workers in the gig economy, new American populations, older adults, people with disabilities, mental health, and economic impacts of the pandemic. As we all know, every dollar helps right now and you can donate a dollar or more to help support the cause.”
Photo: Alice Teeple
The album cover art (and the Johnny Dynamite moniker) came from the artist’s grandfather, Pete Morisi, who co-created the comic bookprivate detective character in the 1950s with writer Ken Fitch.
You can purchase the beautiful track here AND help a good cause:
Barktoberfest 2019 is over; everybody won. Well, we all got to see adorable dogs in great costumes, but only some of those dogs won prizes. Over the course of the evening, ten top dogs won nine prizes for their puppy parents. It was a tough competition, but it wasn’t because of the rain; our judges had to choose between more participants than ever before! More than 80 pups and 200 people showed up for Downtown’s biggest Barktoberfest event.
The Event
On October 29th, hundreds of pups and people descended on the Seaport at Pier 17 for Barktoberfest, a canine costume party celebration. The event was hosted by Downtown Magazine and POOCHI NYC. Downtown Magazine’s Pawblisher Barclay publishes his own column in the magazine. POOCHI NYC is a professional dog-walking service offering memberships to NYC Pawrents with pooches at home.
We know this is why you’re really here: the puppy pictures. We don’t blame you.
Our Runners Pup:
Runners up received a one-year subscription to Downtown Magazine. For one year, they will able to learn about all of the cool stuff happening downtown, and their furry friends can learn about local doggie do’s with Barclay’s Spot.
Our first runner up was dressed as General Leia, our favorite Disney princess.
7th Place
Our 7th place winners were a tag-team, a pair of partners. These army pups won their owner a gift basket from Eatily.
6th Place
This went to a pair of owners, and one adorable infomercial of a pup. This chia pet won its owners a trip to the Fabio Doti Salon on Wall Street.
This pet really grew on our judges.
5th Place
This next pup was a Prime choice for 5th place. This Amazon Prime Pup won our hearts, as well as a Gift Certificate for Worth Street Veterinary Center.
This dog delivers joy to your heart in two days or less.
4th Place
This princely participant won his owner a hair makeover from Fredric Fekkai with David Cotteblanche.
3rd Place
Our third-place winner was also our “funniest costume.” It makes a lot of sense–this pup is a real joker. Pepper won himself a beautiful new dog bed from MGBW.
2nd Place
Our second-place winner is also competing in another contest, a heated political bout that won this dog “Best Headline-of-the-Day” costume. Bernie Sanders himself came down to the competition, looking a little furrier than usual, to collect a dinner for four at the Tribeca Grill.
Senator Sanders posing after a tough competition.
1st Prize
First prize went to a repeat pup. Last year’s winner (she was a fortune teller) returned as a grandma. If you think the costume is impressive, you should have seen her walk her walker on her hind legs. This walker-walking pup’s parent will walk away with an overnight stay at the Four Seasons.
Some Other Highlights
Some candid pics of some other participants. Nobody was a loser with awesome costumes like these.
After 10 hours of rowing around Manhattan, participants of Rocking the Boat’s “Rocking Manhattan” event on September 28th said they were ready for more. The 30-mile row in hand-made boats is a fundraiser for Rocking the Boat, a Bronx-based program. The $440,000 raised represents about 13% of the annual budget. Rocking the Boat teaches children to build, sail, and row boats. Through these activities, they hope to build leadership and social/emotional skills as well as encourage interest in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) fields.
The weather for the event was beautiful, leading to a bright, clear day of rowing for the volunteers. Many of these volunteers were alumni or board members, eager to raise money and give back to the youth organization. Groups of relatives, friends, and co-workers form creatively-named teams to operate hand-made boats. Each team was tasked with raising at least $25,000, though most raised more. The top fundraising team was GStream, a Goldman-Sachs team, raising $90,788. Flotsam and Jetsam came in a close second, with $87,642.
“The day itself was amazing, there was such a good and happy vibe,” said Alies van den Berg, a rower with the team Dismasted, “everyone was so happy to row around the island in support of this amazing cause. Together we can really make a difference in people’s lives. It was also very nice to meet the Rocking the Boat team who made this event happen (and there is a LOT of organization behind the scenes), as well as some of the programs’ alumni.”
At 7:35 am on September 28th, teams of rowers will set out along the East River. No, this isn’t a mass exodus, nor is it an attempt to avoid morning traffic. It’s part of Rocking Manhattan, a 9-hour journey to circumnavigate Manhattan island in rowboats.
Rocking Manhattan is a 30-mile rowing event, providing participants with a rare perspective of New York City and a shared experience with a committed group of fellow New Yorkers (with a few Californians and Rhode Islanders mixed in). Formed into teams of between 4 and 12 people, they circle Manhattan Island along its three rivers—north up the East, west across the Harlem, and south down the Hudson.
Each team is charged with raising at least $25,000 to support Rocking the Boat’s programs for youth in the South Bronx. Most raise significantly more towards the goal of $400,000, or 13% of Rocking the Boat’s annual budget.
Event participants include rowers, coxswains, and powerboat drivers. Event beneficiaries are the roughly 4,000 members of the Hunts Point community who take part in Rocking the Boat’s youth development and public programs.
Groups of relatives, friends, and co-workers form the always creatively named teams rowing around Manhattan Island in Rocking Manhattan, including Flotsam and Jetsam, Dismasted, Knots Unlimited, Shore Thing, Going Full Circle, Rabble Rowsers, Either Oar, Sirens and Argonauts, Ebb and Flow, Rock Lobster. Some have been involved since the first circumnavigation in 2009, others are rowing for the very first time. Some started as members of other teams and have now taken the plunge to captain their own team. Rocking the Boat Board members are leading six of this year’s nine teams. Rocking the Boat’s Founder an Executive Director, Adam Green, always rows one or two of the three legs.
Graduates of Rocking the Boat’s after school youth development program serve as coxswains, steering the boats and keeping their rowers synchronized and motivated. They are members of Rocking the Boat’s Alumni Rowing Team, which trains all summer for the event.
A dear friend of Downtown’s Alies Van Den Berg, will be rowing two legs. We felt that this was something everyone can get out to support.
Members of the tight-knit sailing community in Barnegat Bay, NJ fill a vital role driving safety boats that accompany the rowing gigs throughout the day, providing support as needed from filling empty water bottles to giving weary rowers a short tow.
Starting and ending at One°15 Brooklyn Marina in Brooklyn Bridge Park, the route includes a breakfast stop at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City and a lunch stop at Muscota Marsh in Inwood and brings rowers under bridges, past landmarks, and adjacent to ferries, cruise ships, and coast guard vessels.
A celebration dinner and award presentation (for generating the most dollars, not rowing the fastest) takes place in Brooklyn once everyone returns to the dock.
Outside of a few smallish corporate sponsorships, this is a peer-to-peer fundraiser. Everyone involved has an individual fundraising page complete with progress thermometer. They post photos, write brief stories about their connection to the organization, and then proceed to hit up their networks for donations!
Rocking the Boat posts updates on social media and engages sponsors like Hydroflask for water bottles and Hornblower (the operator of NYC Ferry and Hornblower Cruises) for dry bags.
Rocking the Boat brings tremendous positive impact to the high-need youth of Hunts Point by sustaining a hub of crucial resources and opportunities that help students overcome the circumstantial disadvantages that threaten to stifle their full potential. Activities centered on small boats and local waters are the unique vehicles Rocking the Boat uses to affect profound changes in the lives of young people and the vitality of their community. Wooden boatbuilding, sailing, and environmental research and restoration captivate and challenge young people, expose them to new experiences, and show them they are capable of doing things they never imagined, or only dreamed of. In doing so they develop the technical, social and emotional skills to replicate the successes they have in the shop and on the water in their personal, academic, and professional lives.
The event is a circumnavigation of Manhattan Island over the course of nine hours. The boats, the rowers, the hydration and snacks, and the accumulated enthusiasm of over 100 volunteers are all in place…the only element we cannot plan for (other than the weather!) is a cheering section. Downtown has assembled the following list of locations and estimated times (+/- 10 minutes) for anyone who wants to have a one-of-a-kind New York experience coming out and cheering on the rowers.
Schedule – Enjoy a one-of-a-kind New York experience come on out to cheer on the rowers at any of these viewing areas along the New York Waterway.
Leg 1: East River
Empire Ferry Fulton Ferry Park (base of Brooklyn Bridge): 7:35 a.m.
Main Street Park (base of the Manhattan Bridge): 7:40 a.m.
Gantry Plaza State Park (Hunters Point): 8:10 a.m.
Queensboro Bridge: 8:20 a.m.
Queens Bridge Park (Long Island City): 8:20 a.m.
Roosevelt Island Bridge: 8:40 a.m.
Leg 2: Hell Gate and Harlem River
Carl Schurz Park: 10 a.m.
Thomas Jefferson Park: 10:15 a.m.
The High Bridge: 11:15 a.m.
Sherman Creek Park: 11:40 a.m.
Leg 3: Hudson River
George Washington Bridge / The Little Red Lighthouse: 2:15 p.m.
Riverside Park promenade at 116th Street: 3:15 p.m.
Riverside Park Boat Basin at 79th Street: 3:45 p.m.
