As the year comes to an end, residents, activists, elected officials, community leaders and many more prominent citizens gathered on Sunday evening, December 17th, for the Annual “Unity in Action” Holiday Celebration to honor those who serve their community and recognize the community’s diversity and unity. The event took place at The Bridge Multicultural and Advocacy Project (Bridge MCP), located at 1894 Flatbush Avenue.
Founded in 2013, Bridge MCP has helped various communities throughout New York City by uniting residents from multiple racial, ethnic, cultural and religious groups, and advocating and addressing social issues that society is facing today, including economic matters or, more recently, helping immigrants. The event honors those who have helped their communities and were awarded The Bridge Builder Award.
Among those honored were Rabbi Mendy Mirocznik, president of the Staten Island Council of Jewish Organizations; Noam Gilboord, Interim CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council; Sandra Dieudonne, Esq., President-Elect of the Haitian American Lawyer’s Association of NY; and Mony Lofti, President of MLE MGMT Group.
“I’m very honored and thankful for all the work that Mark Meyer Appel [co-founder of Bridge MCP] is doing to unite the community because right now, more than ever in our nation, we need to all be united together, in particular,” said Lofti. “I’m happy to be here and support my fellow Muslims and continue to set an example so that everybody can do the same thing and unite, have no hate and continue to work for peace and be united for humanity.”
Throughout the event, clergy from different faiths recited prayers and sang songs of faith to encourage attendees to stay together and continue to do good in these difficult times, while elected officials such as Councilwomen Farah Louis (District 45) and Mercedes Narcisse (District 46), along with State Senator Kevin Parker, praised Appel and Bridge MCP for their hard work.
“It’s really a wonderful tribute to New Yorkers, that in New York, we don’t fight,” said Appel. “We are working collectively. Every day, we get together, whether it’s doing clothing drives for the immigrants, helping the community with educational programs or creating TV shows on how to stop hate and bigotry with our young people today. All these things are very important and it hasn’t stopped, and we are becoming a stronger community.”
