The 29th Annual Brooklyn Friends School Winter Craft Fair was a huge success!  
A heartfelt thanks to everyone that helped make it such a wonderful event. From the BFS students who made the hundreds of beautiful snowflakes to the generous support of the BFS parents, teachers, and staff.  BFS was full of happy, smiling children and adults this past Saturday.

The Winter Craft Fair raised over $10,000 with 80% of the proceeds benefiting Horizons National Student Enrichment Program at BFS and 20% of the proceeds benefiting the PAT.

Due to the tremendous support of parents, students and staff, December 6th was a joyous beginning to the holiday season. The school was transformed into a winter wonderland with handmade snowflakes from the students in pre-k to high school. The lower gym was filled with fresh, inspired, hand-crafted designs from the local vendors, and the BFS children’s crafts were high in demand (there were barely any left at the end of the day). The upper gym was humming with activities as the kids shared in the adventures of the “super-sized” obstacle courses, bouncy rides, and many games and balloons.  The plant sale once again filled the lobby with fresh flowers and was a sold out event.  This year the child care was combined with craft making, with children hard at work – concocting hot chocolate mixes and making life sized cut-out ginger bread people.  The Book Fair and Toy drive were also a big success.  The kids enjoyed some new entertainment this year with Franklin Rossman’s Hip-Hop/rap workshop, a karate demonstration by Howard Latting from WMA Karate Studio, and a Guitar Hero competition. The food was exceptionally good with meals and treats prepared by the BFS families and generous donations from BFS family owned restaurants.

Special thanks are due to JOAN MARTIN for internal publicity, including the posters, event brochures, outdoor banner, the e-news, many informed ideas and event know how, to KAREN EDELMAN for her unfailing support and guidance, HELENE BENEDETTI for designing the beautiful poster, to TRENTE MILLER for her energy and once again, single-handedly organizing the carnival and games in the upper gym and making it such an exciting and successful event, to SARA SOLL and APRIL DICOMO for their enthusiasm and for organizing the children’s crafts, to SUSAN ANTONIOU and DONNA DEWITT for coordinating the bake sale, cupcake decorating, and the tasty food provided at the Craft Fair,  (also an additional thanks to SUSAN for lugging in the vats of coffee for the vendors early in the morning at the expense of her back and coat), to NITZA RIVERA and JUAN ALVAREZ for preparing the food and serving them to the hungry shoppers, to LAURYN SMALL (Ideya Latin Bistro) and CRAIG SAMUEL and LAURA CANTY-SAMUEL (Smoke Joint), for their generous food donations from their fabulous restaurants (also an additional thanks to LAURYN for organizing the wonderful high school helpers), to JANETTE O’SULLIVAN for once again procuring the beautiful holiday plants for the plant sale, to MARY FROST and MARISA FARINA for “getting the word out” about the Craft Fair with the external publicity reaching all of Brooklyn and Manhattan through various print and online postings, SHOSHONA WOLFE and JAYE GABEL for a terrific job revamping and organizing the child care/craft making with creativity and heart, to CARLA PRECHT, JULIE LAM, SUE MCLEOD and the entire 6TH GRADE for spearheading and organizing the Toy Drive, to KATHY HARTZLER and ANGIE UNGARO for organizing and running the book fair, to JEILA GUERAMIAN and DEANNA D’AMORE for organizing and coordinating the vendors with expertise (an additional thanks to JEILA for her inspired ideas, bringing in so many new vendors), to EMMY MCINTYRE for her energy, creative input and help with the decoration and signage, to NINA BROEER for organizing the sponsorship and underwriting (additional thanks to NINA for helping out with the coat check ALL day at the event), to CHE CHISHOLM for jumping in and taking over decorations and signage, to LAUREN YAFFE for her ideas, and for helping advertise the event by hanging signs around the neighborhood, to JOCELINE ARSENEAULT, DANAE ORATOWSKI, and LISA TONIA for also helping advertise the event by hanging signs, to WYNNE NOBLE and JOANNE CASEY for their experience, suggestions and information about the event (an additional thanks to JOANNE for volunteering to help-out where needed on the day of the event), GRACE FREEDMAN for her enthusiasm and organizing the volunteers and welcoming families on the day of the event, to REBECCA  DOWNS for helping things run smoothly all day, to MIKE PELLECHIO for his financial know-how, and to the entire MAINTENANCE STAFF AND FRONT DESK ATTENDANTS for their hard work and long hours spent in assisting us before, during, and after the event.  We are specially grateful to our PAT Co-Presidents TOUKIE SMITH and JOHN MAJOR for their incredible support, input, contribution, creativity and assistance, and to many families and students listed below (in alphabetical order – please excuse the typos/spelling errors as the names were mostly taken from the handwritten volunteer board) who gave their time, cooked, baked, put up posters, helped out at the Craft Fair, wrapped gifts, helped set up and clean up.  We could not have done it without ALL of you!  

BoBi Ahn and Laura Bergeron-Mirsky
Winter Craft Fair Co-Chairs

Thank you to volunteers:
Alysia Abbott, Jane Aboyoun, Christine Agro, Chuck Agro, Emily Ann, David Axinn, Rachel Axinn, Bill Bergeron, Carolyn Berman, Emilie Bernstein, Linda Block, Dominique Bravo, Chris Cavallaro, Natasha Chipembere, Gregory Cohn, Judy Cohn Remko de Jong, Dominic Demartini, Sally Doherty, Jessica Fadem, Max Feigelson, Fiona Forward, Rachel Foster, Anna Franceschelli, Jeff Gabel, Sonia Gallimore, Madeline Garay, Jackie Gulstone, Philip Graham, Tonia Gustafson, Mitu Hailu, Laura Hansen, Marion Hart, Lucy Hart, Anker Heegaard, Jill Holder, Allen Honigman, Jeff  Howe, Karen Hughes, Andrew Israel, Olivia Jacobs, Maron Jessop, Anna Kao, Patricia Kelley, Tracey Kennedy, Pam Kiernan, Dalia Kijukuzi, Kilolo Kijukuzi, Rachel Kodsi, Anita Krishman, Sue Kuhlmann, Janis Larson, Tara Leibowitz, Dania Leibowitz, Joyce Leist, Karen Luks, Lou Marino, Rachel Martens, Atea Martin, Regina Mcllvaine, Ruth McQuiggan, Caroline McQueeney Gary Meister, Nickie Menefee, Angela Menziuso, Michele Menziuso, Kimberlee Mertz, Eileen Minnefor, Pamela Mitchell, Liz Mitty, Mark Montalvo, Penni Morganstein, Nickie Menefee, Gary Meister, Jake Ottmann, Richard Porter, Elizabeth Powers, Samantha Rees, Johanna Reuss, Vanessa Reynolds, Leslie Roberts, Michael Roebuck, Jilll Rose, Jessie Rose, Tom Roston, Gemma Sack, Lisa Sack, Andre Salaam,  Gieselle Samartin, Tim Schanen, Andy Simons, Lise Shonfield, Dara Sicherman, Ambereen Sleemi, Krystal Smart, Priscilla Smith, Laura Snyder, Vivian Sorensen, Nancy Steele, Valerie Steiker, Julie Teicher, Sandra Trujillo, Tracy Tullis, Lee Wade, Hellen Walfall, Mary Watson, Jim Wilson, Jason Wizelman.

Our very own BFS student volunteers:
Zoe Babian, Jessica Carlson, Anna Eden, Miriam Gentile, Rachel Hawkins, Christian Hernandez, Olivia Jacobs, Alex Jean, Hannah LaBonte, Dylan Major, Tierney Melia, Chineke Njideka, Shani Paul, Samantha Rees, Mizami Samuels-Waithe, Max Scherzer, Emma Schubert, Sonja Sepkowitz, Jonathan Skurnick, Axita Vora, Jackson Watts, Ellie Williams

 

Winter wreaths and plants, fresh from the Canarsie market, will be on sale, and there will be a special section for craft projects created by Brooklyn Friends School's youngest children. Childcare is available so that parents have opportunities to survey the vast array of fresh, local and inspired crafts and gifts from quiltmakers, potters, jewelers, needlework artisans, and apparel designers.