COMMUNITY SERVICES & CONNECTIONS TEAM – Has successfully collaborated with the Diversity & Inclusion Team to conduct a month-long virtual and in person walkathon to raise funds for Autism Speaks.  Teams began their early bird walk and charity fundraising walk on May 9 stopping at Bryant Park, in front of a landmark Schwartzman Public Library Building. During the early bird walk the team met with other early risers. Activities were in full swing that morning in the park. The reading club was preparing for its session and the Tai Chi Chuan Center were doing their morning exercise along with early commuters buzzing along. The ALANYC Team logged in approximately 500 miles that day. Members and business partners met early morning on May 16^th for a walk at Battery Park, enjoying the park and fresh morning air, and sunshine! We increased to 34 participants and had contributed approximately 563 miles of walking towards raising funds for Autism Speaks! On May 23, the final walk for the teams’ initiative, gathered at the Schwartzman Library Building in Bryant Park, despite the threat of rain, and strolled down the East Side sidewalks up to the United Nations Plaza, which is where the first walk of the series began and a symbolic ending as well. The walk had over 35 participants and achieved an impressive result of over 1,000 miles walked by Chapter Members, Business Partners and their family and friends. Total collective donations raised was approximately $450.  Thanks to all Members, Business Partners, Friends and Family that joined to help make the Teams initiative a great success! Check out some of the memorable photos from walk series.

Together with theAnnual Events & Networking Team, we also invited Members, Business Partners and guests to a Charity Night Bowling Competition benefiting Services for the Underserved (S:US). The event featured a friendly bowling tournament, a raffle with spectacular prizes and a 50/50 raffle. Food, drinks, fun, and a little healthy competition were all included! All proceeds (approximately $4,500) were donated to Services for the UnderServed (S:US), a New York charity that supports the most vulnerable individuals by providing affordable housing and shelter, treatment and rehabilitation, crisis services, family support, skills-building, job training and many other support opportunities. For families who have survived abuse, S:US operates shelters offering safety, security, and the opportunity to heal and rebuild lives. Please follow the link to learn more about people whose lives were touched by S:US. https://sus.org/a-place-of-healing/

We will have more to come over the coming months so be on the lookout for our upcoming events.

Lesya Osipova
Team Lead – Community Connections
[email protected]

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION TEAM – The D&I Team is very excited about all the new trends and learning opportunities available throughout the Chapter. We aim to continue providing topics of interest to all our ALANYC Members, and to collaborate not only with the other Teams and Board Members, but also with our esteemed Business Partners who go above and beyond and do so much for our organization!

We started our term with a field trip to the National Museum of the American Indian in June.  The visit and tour of the Taino exhibits was very well received and enjoyed by all in attendance.  After the tour, we enjoyed a quick bite at Sophie’s Cuban Restaurant, to top off the immersion of the cultural experience. For July, D&I presented an educational session: “Gender Speak”, featuring as speaker our very own Nadia Wagner, Past-President, Regional Office Administrator and Mentor to many! We have received wonderful feedback from Members and Partners on the Gender Speak event Nadia presented for us, a session she has presented at her firm, in conjunction with the Business Culture book, That’s What She Said, by Joanne Lipman.  Reach out to myself or Nadia for a copy of the presentation and cliff notes to Lipman’s book.  Lastly, many thanks to our Business Partner, Kraft Kennedy, for hosting our session and luncheon, as well as partaking in our session and gaining insight into our Chapter. More to come, and we will keep you posted with other D&I events.

Santa Medina
Team Lead, Diversity & Inclusion
[email protected]

Nadia Wagner
Past-President, D&I Contributor, Speaker
[email protected]

ORGANIZATIONAL AFFILIATIONS TEAM – The Organizational Affiliations (OA) Team, created to build and sustain alliances between peer organizations, and local bar associations, continues with its initiative to raise the Chapter’s visibility in the legal and professional communities.  Team OA started in June with a joint session held with International Facilities Management Association of New York City (IFMA NYC), entitled:  An FM Perspective Panel, where a team of experienced Facility and Operations Managers (Christopher Mee, Operations Manager at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, along with Raymond Pezzuti, Director of Facilities, at White & Case LLP) discussed topics on day-to-day tasks, common challenges and best-practices for facility managers and administrators overseeing their facilities and operations.

Through this alliance, Chris Mee has been generous enough to offer his contact information to members who have questions about facilities management. We hope you will make use of his knowledge and generosity. Feel free to reach out to Chris at [email protected]. This is a win/win for us as ALA members. We trust the discussion given provided you with some ideas you can bring to your office.  More later!

Sharon Stewart
Organization Affiliations Team Lead
[email protected]

ANNUAL EVENTS & NETWORKING TEAM – Just coming off the fabulous ALANYC Summer Party, your Events Team is again hard at work!  A great big Thank You! to the entire Events Team Members: Angela, Denise, Donna, Dorothy, Elba, Lydia, Maria, Michael, Nikki, Oria, Rose, Audrey and Tom for all the volunteerism they have dedicated to the success of our mission – putting out the best events ever and to provide the Chapter with new and interesting venues, and entertainment. Hope you were able to join in on the fun when we collaborated with the Community Connections Team for the night of bowling at Lucky Strike Lanes in NYC, raising funds for UnderServed (S:US), an amazing charity doing great things every day, for everyday people.

September? Oh, come on…didn’t Summer just start? Your Chapter Teams never sleep! After all, we are the New York City Chapter, right? And aren’t we the City that never sleeps? We certainly don’t want to diminish Summer and we do hope your Summer is filled with sun and fun and all that you want it to be, but…we have already embarked on visiting new venues and are considering some very interesting topics to highlight our intro to Fall. Stay tuned for a Save the Date communication coming your way!