Out & About

Brooklyn’s first big bash of 2006 will be the installation of the borough president, Marty Markowitz, on Thursday, taking place at Brooklyn Technical High School. Mayor Bloomberg is expected to officiate the oath of office, and like Mr. Bloomberg’s own party, musical entertainment and celebrity guests are promised.Gearing up for the event, Mr. Markowitz was unusually quiet Friday night, keeping his voice low as he recovers from laryngitis, but still rooting for Brooklyn at a fund-raising event for Project Reach Youth.The 38-year-old nonprofit with a $3.4 million annual budget aims to lift up low-income families throughout the borough. It provides literacy and citizenship classes to immigrants, SAT preparation to teenagers, and after-school activities – arts and crafts, chess clubs, poetry slams – to youth.“I’m here for PRY and Brooklyn because the better you do, the better we do,” Mr. Markowitz said. “You know, every kid we save, it makes my life worthwhile.”The reception drew about 100 people to the Brooklyn Heights brownstone of Bryan and Cara Bowers, also the site of one of the Yuletide Ball dinners on behalf of the Brooklyn Kindergarten Society.“This is just an average Brooklyn home,” Mr. Markowitz joked.At larger-scale fund-raising events, it’s easy to be swallowed up by the crowd, with only a white-jacketed waiter passing chicken fingers to greet you. Not so at the Bowers’s home. The executive director of Project Reach Youth, Robert Madison, had a bright and warm smile for every guest, and the waiters were young adults who had been a part of Project Reach Youth’s culinary training program.There were new and old friends to greet, including the Fire Department’s deputy commissioner for intergovernmental affairs, Don Shacknai; the chairman of the Brooklyn Historical Society, James Laughlin; documentary filmmaker Marshall Curry, whose film “Street Fight,” about the Newark mayoral hopeful Cory Booker,is on the short list for an Academy Award, and his wife Elizabeth Martin, the founder of Womenslaw.org, a clearinghouse for information on domestic-violence laws, state by state. Ms. Martin is on the board of Project Reach Youth.This was a party created by and for the community.In front of the fireplace, the proprietor of the Park Slope wine shop Red, White & Bubbly, Darrin Siegfried, poured and talked wine from Sicily, Greece, and California. In the kitchen, the chef and owner of the Park Slope restaurant Tempo, Michael Fiore, filled silver trays with creative and substantial hors d’oeuvres – curried chicken rolls, salmon crudo tucked into cucumber slices, grilled pork loin with apples. Mr. Fiore’s sous chef, Sasha Romero, is also a graduate of Project Reach Youth’s culinary training program (which, alas, is not currently running due to lack of funding).“The program gave her the discipline and basic experience. It helped her understand how to adapt to the pace of a restaurant kitchen. I’d love to have more students,” Mr. Fiore said.The party itself was a sign of Project Reach Youth’s adaptability. Government contracts and foundation grants account for most of its budget. With foundation money dwindling, however, the organization is pouring more energy into fund-raising from individuals.“We’re known for having big parties where you don’t have to write a check,” Mr. Bowers said. “Not tonight. PRY is a great organization, we’ve been involved since we moved to Brooklyn 10 years ago, and we’re happy to help.”agordon@nysun.com

Out & About

Out & About

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