2nd Annual Open Your Heart Benefit

Young Variety, the young professionials committee, of Variety the Children's Charity of New York is hosting their second annual Open Your Heart benefit at Marquee in the Chelsea district of Manhattan.  Last year Young Variety welcomed in a crowd of over 300 to dance the night away and enjoy an evening of celebration and fun which included music by DJ Mel and complimentary Variety cocktails. 

The 2010 benefit is something to look forward to even more.  Block off Feb 9, 2010 on your calendars from 7pm-10pm and come listen to tunes from famed DJ Jus Ske while enjoying complimentary Variety cocktails once again for the first hour.  This year complimentary hors d'ouevres will be served and the evening will also include opportunities to win amazing raffle prizes which include signed sports memerobilia as well as a silent auction.

The Young Variety committee has been working diligently for months to ensure that their guests will not only be contributing to our great charity but also having a blast doing so.  Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door, so make sure to purchase early!

Visit the official event page for more information on Young Variety and for tickets.

2009 Toy Drive: What a Success!

Some would think it would be odd to talk about a toy drive post holiday season but we believe children should be allowed to have the right to play throughout the year.  Our 2009 annual Toy Drive was a huge success and almost tripled in size in terms of how many buildings participated in the borough of Manhattan and how many toys we collected overall, from past years.  Among the buildings that participated were the Time Warner Center, managed by Related Real Estate, Greenberg Traurig, New York Sports Clubs, Local One Union, and many buildings managed by M.D. Sass and S.L. Green.  Toy contributions also came from boutiques and stores in manhattan that collected toys throughout December.  Michael Kohrs in Soho and all the Manhattan based Anthropologie's were among the appreciated donators to contribute a significant portion to our annual toy drive.  The toys pictured were available for sale at Anthropologie stores at various locations in Manhattan.  Customers purchased the toys, which then were collected by Anthropologie and donated to our drive.

The huge success of this past drive leaves us hope of providing the underprivileged children we serve with toys not only during our annual holiday party but throughout the year at various homeless shelters and community facilities.  In 2009 close to 1,000 children from various organizations came to our Holiday Party which took place at the Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens.  The organizations they came from included community centers like The Point Community Development Corp., care facilities like the Association to Benefit Children, and children's hospitals in the New York area like the National Foundation for Facial Reconstruction, among others.  Each child walked away with a brand new toy and an unforgettable day of spirited song, dance, and festivities.

Thank you to everyone who donated to our toy drive and any other charitable organizations in 2009 and lets hope to make 2010 even better for the children in our local communities.

Some news in the New Year!

Variety of New York sent out our annual newsletter in December, but in case you were not on the mailing list you may have missed out on some news. If you've attended a movie in the past month in the tri-state area chances are you went to a theater that played our PSA featuring Jaime Lee Curtis for our Wishing Well Campaign. The nifty thrifty easy to be a good samaritan campaign allows movie patrons to donate their spare change in Variety canisters stationed by the ticket and concession area vendors. Some theaters even pass them around. 20 cents here, 70 there...it really adds up.

Last year's campaign raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the underprivilege children we serve. As always with the economic crisis being what it is...those who suffer the most are the low income families and specifically youth who cannot pull themselves out of poverty. With every penny counting, Variety hopes movie patrons will support the children in our surrounding communities.

Another campaign that just began at National Amusements and Clearview Cinema theatres is the Gold Heart Pin Campaign. It allows movie patrons to purchase $2 Kermit the Frog pins with 75% of the funds going back to the Variety cause. Whoopi Goldberg teamed up with Kermit the Frog to talk about the importance of Variety locally, nationally, and internationally in a PSA played prior to the movie shown.

Below are the two PSAs in case you slipped into a film late and missed them:







So enjoy a good film this pre-oscar season and if you can spare an extra buck...or two, know that it is definitely appreciated!