On Thursday, May 3, 270 members of the Brooklyn Friends community gathered together for our spring benefit, Brooklyn Friends at the Tribeca Film Festival—The Sequel! The proceeds from the evening’s events went towards financial aid and the establishment of a financial aid endowment fund.

As the evening opened, we were awed and inspired at the courageous acts of a young man with Muscular Dystrophy named Darius Weems, who traveled across the country with 10 friends for a moving, exciting and emotional journey. The film, “Darius Goes West,” was part of the Tribeca Film Festival and we were honored to have Logan Smalley, the director, as well as Darius himself introduce the film.

After the film, we all boarded the buses for a Chinese banquet and celebration in Chinatown. Lots of food, lots of fun, and lots of friends made for a festive atmosphere. Many people bid on amazing silent auction items, everything from original artwork, to pilates sessions, to restaurants and more.

We then held our live auction with parent Lisa Sack as our auctioneer yet again! Children’s projects, fabulous restaurant packages, VIP passes to a music festival and a visit to the set of a major motion picture were only some of the items bid on and won by parents and friends.

The real excitement came when 4th grade teacher Seth Flicker spoke to everyone about why financial aid is such an important piece of the Brooklyn Friends mission. When he asked everyone who wanted to give $100 to financial aid to raise their hands, over $5,000 was quickly raised. A short time later, a parent in attendance offered a match up to $5,000 if we did it again! $3,600 was raised this time, but then another parent offered $1,400 to take full advantage of the $5,000 match. So, in that short time, $15,000 was raised to go directly towards the financial aid program and endowment.

Thank you to all of our generous families for your support and we hope you had a great time!

Footnote: On Friday, May 4th, Darius, from “Darius Goes West,” and members of the film came to Brooklyn Friends for lunch and to meet with students, parents and faculty. We were honored to have them here and thank them for a wonderful film and source of inspiration.