VBGCQ worked closely with NY Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris, NY Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, and New York City Council Member Tiffany Cabán to start a COVID-19 testing site at the Club’s Astoria Clubhouse and Teen Center to provide much needed testing options to the Western Queens community.
The testing sites opened just before Christmas with the Teen Center location staying open through the end of January.
More information about the pop-up testing can be found below!
Variety worked with tons of members of our community to gather over 1,600 toys that were distributed this December! Over 1,000 gifts were given out to the kids served at all six of the Club’s locations with the remainder of the gifts distributed to VBGCQ’s partner schools in Queens.
Thank you to so many folks for supporting this campaign! Special thanks to the following:
JetBlue System Operations Center
9 Hugs
Vlad Paunic
Alex Paunic CEO and co-founder of PreCog Security, Inc.
Tamarra Jenkin
Amy Shelver, founder of BriefMapp
Soman Chainani
PreCog Security, Inc.
Executive Digital
Sasha Jovicic- CEO of Executive Digital
Sam Busic
Fernando Quintero
Vernon Tower
Astoria Heights Playground Tennis Community
Variety was selected, along with 27 other Queens organizations, to receive funding from the Queens District Attorney Katz’s office through the Youth Development and Crime Prevention Program! The funds will support our college and career readiness programming at the Club’s Teen Center in Astoria. The College and Career Readiness Program includes college and career counseling, SAT and ACT prep, and college visits! All of the Teen Center’s programs are completely free and open to the community. Teens and families can learn more about the program and register here.
Read more about the Queens DA Youth Development and Crime Prevention Program and the other awardees here!
On September 18th, VBCGQ held our annual Back to School Festival at the Astoria Clubhouse! Over 600 community members stopped by the Festival to get free school supplies, eat yummy food, dunk Costa in the dunk tank, and more!
Food was available from Chip City, Ample Hills Creamery, and San Antonio’s Wood Fired Pizza and back to school supplies were donated by Ashley Dean/Apartment 3R, NY State Senators Gianaris and Ramos, PreCog Security, Executive Digital, and Staples Store 841. Tons of local shops and organizations tabled at the event - including the The Noguchi Museum, BioBus, and the Astoria Bookshop! The Club also did a free raffle with prizes including JetBlue flight vouchers, a goodie bag from Astoria Bookshop, Amazon gift cards, free yoga classes, and more.
VBGCQ also partnered with NY State of Health to do a COVID-19 Vaccine Pop Up in our gym. Every teen who got their first show received a FREE one day pass to Governor’s Ball! This partnership was so successful that NY State of Health is going to come back to the Club in October and do another pop up!
A special thank you TD Bank, Chip City, Heroes Basketball, and NYC Health and Hospitals Elmhurst Hospital for sponsoring the event! We can’t wait to see you all next year!!
This summer, New York Power Authority ran a STEM program for the summer campers at the Astoria Clubhouse.
Almost 40 middle school aged campers completed a six week program, culminating in a career day with folks from New York Power Authority, Con Edison, and 174 Power Global shared about their experiences working in renewable energy. At the career day, 174 Power Global announced a $15,000 donation to the Club to support Variety’s STEM programs!
Read more about the summer camp STEM program and see pictures here!
On a sunny Wednesday afternoon at Silver Lake Golf Course on Staten Island, over 100 golfers played 18 holes to raise money for the Club.
John Jastremski, a member of the Club’s Young Professionals Committee and host of the Ringer’s sports podcast New York, New York, organized the second annual event. Groups of golfers competed against each other before participating in a raffle with fun prizes including a Knicks jersey signed by Julius Randle, gift certificates to restaurants, and Mets and Yankees tickets.
Read more about the invitational and see pictures here!
On Sunday June 13th, Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens and Elmjack Little League hosted out first annual Jr. Home Run Derby at Elmjack fields! Over 50 kids came out to see how many balls they could hit out of the park. The winners of the two divisions will be invited to the Regional Championship with the chance of making it to the Home Run Derby World Series!
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards came out to hit a few balls as well as make the exciting announcement that the Queens Borough President’s Office is allocating $5 million dollars to the redevelopment of Variety’s Astoria Clubhouse. These funds will go towards the construction of a new Boys & Girls Club that will allow Variety to go from serving 4,000 to 15,000 kids every year!
Read more about the event and the funding announcement here!
This spring, Belief launched a second collaboration with Variety Boys & Girls Club including tees, sweats, duffle bags, and more!
Belief has been a partner of VBGCQ for a few years and this is the second collaboration that they have created with the Club. A percentage of all of the proceeds from the sale of the Belief x VBGCQ co-branded gear is donated to the Club to support our afterschool and summer camp programs!
The Board of Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens is excited to announce that Costa Constantinides will be joining the team at Variety Boys & Girls Club as the Chief Executive Officer on April 9th!
A native Astorian who attended P.S. 84 and P.S. 122, both in Astoria, before graduating from William Cullen Bryant High School, Costa has served as the City Council Member representing District 22 for the past eight years. Costa has always been committed to helping the kids of District 22 and has supported our community over the years through initiatives such as: securing $30 million to reimagine Astoria Park, working with the School Construction Authority and Department of Citywide Administrative Services to put solar panels on all solar-ready school in District 22, and allocating capital funding to put a hydroponic science lab in every school in our district.
As VBGCQ enters the next phase of our 200-million-dollar expansion project, we are excited for Costa’s leadership and skills to help build a new Boys & Girls Club in Astoria that will serve all of the families in our community for decades to come. Everyone at Variety knows that Costa’s passion for our mission and his years of leadership in our community make him the perfect fit to lead our amazing organization into the future!
The Executive Board and Staff at the Club are excited that Costa will be joining us and we look forward to welcoming him when he begins his journey with the Club in a early April!
Click here for a statement from Council Member Constantinides! And check out articles about the transition here and here!
Please reach out to info@bgcqueens.org with any questions.
JetBlue and the JetBlue Foundation have been longtime partners with VBGCQ, their neighborhood Boys & Girls Club!
Over the years, volunteers from JetBlue have painted classrooms at the Astoria Clubhouse, donated free flight vouchers to raffle off during fundraising events, installed a brand new playground at the Astoria Clubhouse, and made multiple grants to support the Club’s STEM programs.
As part of JetBlue Foundation’s response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, JetBlue awarded grants to a bunch of organizations that support STEM and education programs for youth, focusing on populations that are historically underrepresented in STEM and aviation. Variety was excited to be awarded a $15,000 grant to support our Teen Center! This funding will support the Teen Center’s STEM and college and career readiness programming for over 100 teen members at the Club!
Read more here!
Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens is excited to announce that we were awarded a $50,000 Love Takes Action grant by the New York Life Foundation, thanks to a designation by Jaime-Faye Bean! Bean is the executive director of Sunnyside Shines Business Improvement District and co-founder of Queens Together and she secured the grant for the youth center after being named one of 35 individuals across the nation as “Love Takes Action” awardees.
Read more here!
National burger chain, Bareburger, announced a new burger in partnership with Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens.
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“Partnering with the Boys and Girls Club in our hometown of Astoria, the neighborhood in which Bareburger was born, is a no-brainer. In our newest collaboration, Bareburger x VBGCQ brings you a custom-made burger that we have dubbed ‘The Variety Burger’. Bareburger Culinary Director, Chef Lemon created this vegetarian beauty. On a vrioche (vegan brioche) bun delicately smeared with garlic aioli, we have stacked a sweet potato patty, tempeh bacon, tomato, red onion, alfalfa sprouts and pickled jalapeños. A quick drizzle of sriracha honey dressing finishes this baby off. For each Variety Burger you buy (a worthwhile $13.95), we’ll donate a dollar to the VBGCQ.”
Read more here!
Over 100 volunteers from JetBlue’s Finance Team and the JetBlue Foundation came to Variety Boys & Girls Club on Friday, September 20th to beautify the Club! They painted the lobby and the main hallway downstairs and bright shade of blue and added new plants to the living wall in the Club’s lobby.
JetBlue’s CFO Steve Priest and the President of the JetBlue Foundation Ursula Hurley joined in the fun as well.
Thank you so much, JetBlue for brightening up our space just in time for the start of the school year! Check out the gallery below for before, during, and after pictures.
Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens alumni and actress talks about her time on the hit show Euphoria and growing as a model and actress over the years. Barbie grew up coming to Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens. She began doing theater at the Club at age 7 and by age 10 she knew she wanted to be an actress. Everyone at Variety is so excited for Barbie’s continued success and we can’t wait to see what she does next!!
Read more about Barbie and her career here!
Over a dozen teenagers came to the newly opened Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens Teen Center last Friday for a Pizza and Paint Night! Following along with a video online, each teen painted a sunset landscape while chowing down on pizza. We have so many talented artists in our midst!
Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens was excited to soft-launch the Teen Center this summer and we can’t wait to officially open our doors at the start of the school year! Visit bgcqueens.org/teencenter for more information and to learn how to sign up for the program!
On Friday June 14th, VBGCQ’s young artists showed off their creations in the first Art Gallery Show. Paintings, drawings, and pastel art were features on the walls of the black box studio while African inspired drums and other sculptures were displayed on tables.
Families and friends sipped on juice and ate hors d’ouervres prepared by the Cooking Club while watching live spoken word art by local artists, drawing demonstrations by Art Club members, and viewing the artwork on display.
During the 2018-2019 school year, VBGCQ focused its afterschool arts program on multicultural visual arts inspired by artists and artistic genres from around the world
Queens Salah M. Hassanein, Founder and longtime Board Member of Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens passed away on Friday June 7th at age 98.
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“Salah M. Hassanein, the former president of Warner Bros. International Theaters who was a tireless philanthropist in Hollywood, died Friday at his home in Del Mar, California, his family announced. He was 98. He served for many years as a member of the board of the Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens (renamed the Salah M. Hassanein Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens in his honor) and was board chairman and president of Variety International. He also was president and honorary chairman of the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation and instrumental in creating the Will Rogers Institute on the grounds of Burke Rehabilitation Hospital after the closure of the Will Rogers Hospital in 1975. The Pioneers Assistance Fund's Salah Hassanein Medical Grant provides temporary financial aid for film industry members in need.”
Read more here
A profile on Renée Edwards, long time volunteer at the Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens.
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“What with her degree and interest in youngsters, it was inevitable that Renée would opt for a career that kept her close to them. For 31 years, she has worked for the New York City Department of Education’s LYFE program, which provides child care for student parents. A para, she’s stationed at Long Island City High School. “I’m responsible for four infants whose ages are two months to 12 months,” she says, proudly calling up their photos on her smartphone and cooing. When she gets off from work, Renée starts her volunteer duties. She heads over to the Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens in Long Island City, where she teaches sewing, knitting and crocheting a couple of times a week.”
Read more here!
A huge congratulations is in order for the Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens Youth of the Year - Christopher Samuel! Chris is 18 years old and has been a part of the Variety Boys & Girls Club for the last decade. Over these last ten years, we've seen him develop into a young man who navigates through the many obstacles young men of color so often face through listening, communicating and leading. Chris has credited our organization's mentorship program "Passport-to-Manhood" as a factor that contributed to his immense growth over the years. After realizing that the program began to garner less attention at the Club, he took initiative and provided his passion and insight to help revamp the program, which is now called "BroCode." Chris also dedicates his time to tutor youth and teach them about living a healthy and active lifestyle. Aside from his involvement at the Club, Chris is also a part of his class' Student Government, a member of the Honors Society, and a leader in his Class Council. Chris hopes to have a career in the field of Public Services.
The Young Professionals Committee (YPC) at Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens has grown! In recent months, the YPC has added four new members to the Committee:
Andrea Bischof | Vice President, Institutional Equity Sales - China International Capital Corporation
Katherine Cote | Associate Director - UBS Investment Bank
Russell McAleavey | Vice President, Assistant General Counsel - J.P. Morgan Asset Management
John Reinhardt | Associate - Sam Schwartz Consulting
The YPC supports VBGCQ philanthropically through fundraising events and by creating connections to potential corporate partners. YPC members also support programming at the Club by teaching engineering classes, hosting Career Day events, and more!
VBGCQ is excited to welcome Andrea, Katherine, Russell, and John to the YPC!
