Brooklyn Boro

Holy Cross Brooklyn Outreach Center holds 3rd annual fundraiser

June 15, 2017 By John Alexander Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Maria Vasaka-Monioudis and Ioannis Pavlakos with Father Gerasimos Makris. Photo by Rigo Nasopoulos
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On Tuesday, the Holy Cross Brooklyn Outreach Center (HCBOC) held its third annual fundraiser at Leo’s Casa Calamari in Bay Ridge. The organization was founded in 2013 to provide holistic care for the less fortunate, including physical, emotional and spiritual needs. 

Since March 2008, Orthodox Christians in communities throughout the borough have been conducting midnight runs to bring food, clothing and toiletries to New York City’s homeless. These community efforts inspired a group of Orthodox philanthropists to become involved and help fund the effort.

In 2013, HCBOC was established as a charitable organization open to all communities in order to promote philanthropy throughout the borough and NYC. Board members include the Rev. Gerasimos Makris of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church in Bay Ridge and community leaders Maria Vasaka-Monioudis, Zoe Koutsoupakis, Ioannis Pavlakos, Peter Kontopirakis and Claudia Zain.

Current HCBOC programs include the Homeless Midnight Run and Outreach on the Go. For the Homeless Midnight Run, the organization prepares sandwiches and food packages along with clothing and toiletries to distribute to homeless. For Outreach on the Go, HCBOC volunteers prepare home-cooked meals for home delivery. 

HCBOC has served more than 27,000 meals to the homeless and 1,350 home-cooked meals and provided 2,700 bags of groceries to neighbors in need.

Awards were presented to Panormiti Tsavaris, the chef who volunteers and does all the cooking for the center; and Kyra Neamonitakis, who received the first young philanthropist award for donating 1,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies to the homeless. 

All proceeds from the fundraiser go toward funding HCBOC’s current programs that help the needy. Their goal is to raise enough funds to open an outreach center in Brooklyn with a soup kitchen and food and clothing pantry.

 

For more information, go to HCBOC.org

 

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