Brooklyn Heights

Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy’s Black Tie Ball raises more than $625K for BBP programs

October 7, 2014 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy Executive Director Nancy Webster, Board member Marisa Farina and Neil Giacobbi, AT&T.
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The Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy hosted the second annual Brooklyn Black Tie Ball in Brooklyn Bridge Park on Oct. 2. The event included cocktails, a seated three-course meal and entertainment on the Pier 2 roller rink, with the New York skyline serving as a magnificent backdrop followed by an After Party hosted by the Conservancy Currents.

The Conservancy, which began 29 years ago as a grassroots community group advocating to build Brooklyn Bridge Park on former industrial land, has provided free public programs for more than one million visitors over the past 13 years. The Conservancy contributes numerous popular events and amenities to the park including Books Beneath the Bridge, Syfy Movies With A View, the Pop-Up Pool, volunteer docent tours, youth and adult soccer leagues and an information cart for the public, in addition to its already lengthy lineup of educational, recreational, fitness and cultural events.

The Brooklyn Black Tie Ball raised more than $625,000, which will provide support for the more than 450 free public recreational, educational and cultural events the Conservancy brings to the park each year.


“The generous support we received from the Brooklyn Black Tie Ball will help us take our education programming in the park to the next level,” said Nancy Webster, executive director of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy. “We will be able to welcome even more students and individuals to explore the wonders of urban ecology in this unique and wonderful space on the New York City waterfront.”

The Gala will benefit the Conservancy’s environmental education program, providing park visitors and families with free environmental education in the park. Currently welcoming more than 8,000 school children each year from all across New York City, this program uses the park as a living classroom, offering teachers and students an immersive, hands-on exploration of the plants and animals of the park, Brooklyn waterfront history, sustainability, the East River tidal estuary, geology, weather and more.


Additionally, donated funds from the Brooklyn Black Tie Ball will help to open a new Environmental Education Center, providing an indoor space for year-round and after-school programming. The new classroom will serve as home base for the Conservancy’s environmental field work in Brooklyn Bridge Park, plus allow drop-in hours for the public to enjoy interactive exhibits and a 500-gallon East River aquarium and touch tank.


“Support of the Conservancy, whose great programming adds so much to the park experience and educates so many, is stronger than ever,” said Regina Myer, president of Brooklyn Bridge Park. “Next year we will be opening the Conservancy’s environmental education center on Plymouth St. in DUMBO. The Conservancy will finally have a venue for year-round programming, and I know that Nancy Webster and her amazing team are going to do an incredible job in bringing even more programming to the park.”

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