Go Project raises $200,000 to go toward helping neediest students

From left, Stephanie Weldon, GO Project social worker; Sally Zunino, chairperson, GO Project board of directors; and Julie Meyer, GO Project board member, at Greenwich Village benefit.

More than $200,000 was raised at a recent Greenwich Village benefit for the GO Project, a charity dedicated to “at-risk,” underprivileged students from public elementary schools below 14th St. in Manhattan.

Held at Pressure on University Pl. on April 21, 12 lots were auctioned by Christie’s auctioneer George McNeely, including a week’s vacation in a chateau in Gray, France, and portraits taken by top fashion photographers Timothy Greenfield Sanders and Patrick Demarchelier. Tishman Hotel Corporation and Fortress Investments sponsored the event.

Over 250 guests partied into the early morning hours; guests included George Davison, head of Grace Church School; Philip Kassen, director of Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School; and Reverend Donald Waring, new rector of Grace Church, all of whose institutions actively support the GO Project.

Rose Byron McSween, GO Project director of development, said, “These extraordinary financial results will enable us to serve the intellectual, social and emotional needs of at least 200 ‘at risk’ children from the public elementary schools south of 14th St. Student enrollment will increase by 25 percent year-over-year. This is a remarkable community achievement.”

The GO Project’s GO Summer School starts July 5. The deadline for new applicants was May 27, but applications are still being accepted for grades one and three. Contact Wendy Reynoso, director of education, at 212-533-3744 or wreynoso@goprojectnyc.org.