Supporters of the Inner-City Scholarship Fund raised $2.5 million at the fund’s 50th anniversary celebration on Sept. 23.
More than 200 guests attended the event at Wave Hill and funds from the evening will help support Inner-City in its mission to provide tuition assistance for underprivileged students attending Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of New York.
The event was emceed by Mo Rocca, CBS Sunday Morning correspondent, and featured special guests including Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, Peter T. Grauer, chairman at Bloomberg, Stephen Schwarzman, chairman and CEO of Blackstone and Christine Schwarzman, a trustee of the Inner-City Scholarship Fund.
Three scholarship students were honored for their poetry submissions to the Inner-City Scholarship Fund 50th Anniversary Poetry Contest about their Catholic school experience. The first place student winner, Elena Villa, a sophomore at Notre Dame High School, delivered her winning poem, “Windows” during the event and was awarded $2,500 for college tuition.
Guests enjoyed a special student performance from St. Francis of Assisi School in the Bronx. The young musicians performed a re-imagination of three songs from Broadway’s “Hamilton” musical. The students dressed up as the founding members of Inner-City and performed adapted lyrics to reflect the story of the creation of the nonprofit.
“I am so grateful to the countless donors and volunteers from the past 50 years who have selflessly given their time and treasure to the cause of expanding access to quality education for more than 800,000 students,” Grauer said. “The dreams that came true for thousands of kids would not have been possible without your amazing commitment to Inner-City and the Catholic school system.”
Throughout 2021, the Inner-City Scholarship Fund has recognized its proud history of helping children in need receive a high-quality, values-based Catholic school education, and five decades of support from cherished friends and donors.
