Giving Back to Community Corp. will support feeding 200 families in Elmont and surrounding neighborhoods for Thanksgiving and over 3,000 citizens of Onitsha, Nigeria, for the holidays after raising over $17,000 on Sept. 27 at the annual Hearts in Action Gala at Leonard’s Palazzo in Great Neck.
Over 100 guests in attendance were treated to dinner, wine, music, raffles, auctions, and speeches about the charity’s mission by several keynote speakers.
“It’s just a nice day of memories,” Emilian Emeagwali, founder of the charity, said. “It’s teaming up together in the spirit of unity and helping our neighbors.”
In addition to the funds raised at the gala, one of the charity’s longtime supporters and donors, Jackie Grabin, pledged to match the final donation number, which Emeagwali said were still being counted as of press time.
Additional sponsors include Eugene Agbimson, Oduche Igboechi, Mary Eisenstein, Carl Ellis, Walic Beverage Distributor Inc., located in Brooklyn, and State of the Art Physical Therapy, which is Emeagwali’s practice located in Valley Stream.
The charity honored Joseph Ramirez, Nassau County’s regional representative at the state’s executive chamber in Albany. New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who was not in attendance, sent a certificate of recognition of the charity and its volunteers, as did County Executive Bruce Blakeman.
In addition to the food distributions, Emeagwali said the charity plans to support 20 women in Nigeria with $200-300 to invest in their businesses. She said she believes supporting women is essential to break the cycle of poverty.
Chinedu Okala, a professor of arts and associate dean of liberal arts at Norfolk State University in Virginia, has attended the gala for the past five years and delivered speeches on the topic of poverty and hunger. He said he often discusses the topic with his students, as well.
“I talk about grander theories of life that we cannot gloss over because they are germane to human existence itself,” he said. “Everybody gets hungry. The difference is that for some people, there’s a means to address it. But a good number of our fellow human beings are hopelessly incapacitated toward banishing hunger.”
He said his work at Giving Back to Community is about bringing like-minded people together through community outreach and providing tangible solutions to hunger, whether it be funds or food.
“When you have a leader like Emilian,” Okala said, “who truly dedicates her heart to making sure this happens, she leaves no stone unturned.”
He said he hopes the charity, which he views as a microcosm of the larger mission, can expand to meet the needs of more communities.
Everett Leach, a volunteer who attended this year’s gala, said he began volunteering with his wife, Harietta Leach, after Harietta began seeing Emeagwali for physical therapy services. He recalled Emeagwali discussing the charity, and it resonated with him.
Being part of the charity, he explained, helps him be part of something bigger than himself.
“It was the dream to be able to help out others in the community,” Everett said. “Not only in this community, but in any community where help is needed.”
Everett has assisted the charity for five years, raising funds for scholarships, school supplies, food distributions, and toy drives, which are all hosted out of Emeagwali’s Valley Stream office.
However, he said the office is too small to conduct the charity’s events, and he and Emeagwali both hoped the recognition of local and state politicians could help promote the charity’s mission and convince officials to allocate funds for a new location so the charity can grow its operation.
“There are people who need it,” Everett said, noting that many families suffer due to no fault of their own. “Organizations like this are needed.”
Luckily, Everett continued, many attendees of the gala expressed interest in the charity’s mission.
He said it’s important to keep an open dialogue with people about the mission of the charity. Because Emeagwali is always sharing information about her charity with others, he said it often inspires them to get involved.
Emeagwali’s goal for funds remaining after upcoming food distributions and donations to other recipients is to find a permanent location for the charity to operate its food distributions. She agreed with Everett that it’s not large enough to host food distributions as often as she’d like.
Emeagwali added if anyone is willing to make additional donations or donate a space she could coordinate bimonthly distributions, it would help the charity expand its operation.
“We want our organization to be known to everybody,” Emeagwali said. “I feel like when we unite, we stand stronger.”
