BY GABE HERMAN | The Borough of Manhattan Community College Foundation’s board of directors hosted a gala on May 16 that raised $922,000 for scholarships for the school’s students.
Called “Invest in a Future, Celebrate Success,” the college-boosting confab was attended by 480 people.
Honorees included Tim Gokey, C.E.O. of Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., and special guest artist honoree Ashley Bouder, the founder and director of the Ashley Bouder Project and principal dancer at the New York City Ballet.
A third honoree was the Herbert and Audrey Rosenfield Fund, which announced at the gala a $1 million gift to the B.M.C.C. Foundation, to support the school’s Out in Two Program.
“These gifts bring our most talented and hard-working students closer to the careers and advanced degrees they want, in order to strengthen their communities and contribute to the world in a positive way,” said Doris Holz, vice president of development and C.O.O. of the B.M.C.C. Foundation. “Students who are awarded scholarships are nearly four times more likely to graduate within three years, than comparable nonrecipients. Not only that, graduation rates for students who receive scholarships are close to 85 percent, compared with about 45 to 60 percent for their peers who did not receive that support.”
In acknowledgment of the $1 million gift from the Rosenfield family, a naming ceremony was held on May 20 at Shirley Fiterman Hall, at 245 Greenwich St., for the Herbert and Audrey Rosenfield Lobby.
The lobby memorializes the family’s contributions to both B.M.C.C. and Lower Manhattan, according to a B.M.C.C. statement. In 1987, Herbert Rosenfield founded the Abner B. Rosenfield Memorial Award for Outstanding Scholarship and Citizenship, in honor of his father.
Herbert Rosenfield, who died in 2016 at age 97, was also a key supporter of B.M.C.C.’s move from Midtown to Chambers St. in 1983, and he was a founder of the B.M.C.C. Foundation.
He also lobbied in Albany for the Loft Law, which allowed artists to live in their lofts, in places like Soho, organized the first community cleanup in Gramercy Park in the 1960s, and helped develop programs for New York Downtown Hospital as a board trustee.
His wife, Audrey, who died in 2001, worked locally with the New York School for the Deaf, The Girl Scouts of New York and the Gramercy Park Flower Show. Audrey and Herbert both helped to found the Chambers-Canal Civic Association.
