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Trustees:
Allen Zwickler
Seymour Zwickler
Caren Levine
Jeff Silver
May 2013
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Anyone who has spent time with me talking about our foundation knows how we value the spirit of collaboration. While we are always on the lookout for a select number of new grantees, our first preference is to continue funding our "family" of existing grantees. Importantly, we urge these grantees to collaborate with each other on projects. During 2012 we can happily report that we funded a new grantee, and our collaboration model began to take shape.
Our newest Grantee is SAFE SCHOOLS SOUTH FLORIDA (SSSF) (www.safeschoolssouthflorida.org). SSSF is a 20-year old non-profit that was introduced to us by Peter Gordon, a personal friend and past SSSF president and board member. Also SSSF has worked on projects with the Stonewall Archives, an organization that has been a grantee. During a trip to Florida I met Robert Loupo, the Executive Director of SAFE SCHOOLS. He impressed me with his enthusiasm and dedication. As a teacher and guidance counselor in South Florida, he emphasized how "bullying" has become a pervasive problem/issue in his district. He also mentioned that school districts across the country are beginning to recognize this issue and are "open" to finding solutions. Techniques to tackle this problem include training school counselors and teachers to create safer classrooms in order to give LGBTQ children an opportunity to cope and become more resilient. We made a small-donation to SAFE SCHOOLS in 2012 and another one in early 2013. Please visit our grant page under collaborations for more details. We intend to do more due diligence on the "bullying topic" to ascertain whether government bureaucrats can truly embrace this difficult dilemma.
Now in its 12th year, our Cornell fellow program continues to thrive. We have over 30 fellows. During early 2012, Amy Stone, a 2008 fellow, published a book called Gay Rights At The Ballot Box. In late 2012 Jamie Cantrell, a 2012 Fellow, invited Amy Stone to collaborate toward gathering abstracts/papers from our fellows and other young scholars with the intention of publishing a book. Also, during the summer, Gil Frank, a 2005 Zwickler Fellow, convened in New York City a total of seven young doctoral candidates and professors' to discuss how they may work together on publishing papers and books. We funded this "workshop" and I had lunch with the group. I also sponsored a lunch with several executives of AIDS related organizations in New York. The purpose was to brainstorm about potential collaborations and sharing ideas.
Updates include Tess Geers, our first and only environmental grantee, who is now gainfully employed as a conservation associate/wild fisheries specialist at the New England Aquarium. Her work on the Gulf of Mexico spill inspired us to fund her. Another long term success story has been our funding of marathon bike rider Tracy Daugherty. We met seven years ago through Marty Rosen, who successfully coordinated numerous marathon (200-500 miles per ride) NY State and NY/DC AIDS rides; some of which are documented on our grant page. Tracy continues to ride year in and year out for the "cure". The last few years she rode in Atlanta for the benefit of the Emory University Vaccine Center. We continue to support her efforts. She, Caren and I have a special bond as we lost our brother to HIV/AIDS.
Last but not least, we were in awe when David Frances' movie How To Survive A Plague was nominated for an Oscar in the category of 'best documentary'. We lent David several minutes of Phil's film. Even though he did not win during the April 2013 event, just getting to the finals was an enormous honor.
2013 has already had its share of success stories. One in particular that I recently spoke with is University Settlement. They have made enormous strides in expanding services. Look for an update soon. In order to better "advertise" our ongoing work on a real time basis, we have updated the home page of our Website to feature "recent news and accomplishments". Please visit as we intend to change the page and post on Facebook on a regular basis. As always, we urge you to visit our website and read the more in-depth profiles about our grantees. While we have only highlighted a few in this letter, all are important and can use your help in as many ways as possible.
Until Next Year,
Allen Zwickler
Trustee
Phil Zwickler Charitable & Memorial Foundation Trust
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