BOC Gala 6-13-08

I spent a lovely Friday the 13th of June, by attending the fabulous 2008 luncheon awards ceremony held by the Business Outreach Center (BOC) Network. The affair was held at the Battery Gardens in Battery Park. The restaurant was surrounded by water with a bird’s eye view of the Statue of Liberty. The BOC Board of Directors, BOC staff, and the restaurant staff were most gracious and made all of us feel welcome and comfortable. In all, BOC honored 13 successful entrepreneurs that have used its services or loan products to start or grow their businesses.

The honorees represent a snapshot of the rich diversity of our city. The one thing that each of them has in common is their entrepreneurial spirit and the fact that they received business and financial support from BOC.

Congratulations are in order to:
K.Y. Chow, an Asian American who is the founder and President of Grand Meridian (GM) Printing Inc.,
Ms. Okwa Okon, a native of Nigeria and the owner of Guse, Inc. which produces novelty buttons and personalized gift items,
Ms. Zhanna Shimunova a native of Uzbekistan, who is the proud owner of a successful enterprise, “Austin Fancy Cuts” hair salon,
Mr. Murat Uyaroglu, the owner of the Prospect Perk Café located in Prospect Heights and a native of Turkey,
And Mr. Courtney Washington who is Jamaican American and the proud owner of CW fashion in Fort-Greene Brooklyn.

Awards were also given to Miguel Centeno, Vice President of Aetna Strategic Market Development and New York State Assemblyman MarkWeprin for their strong support of entrepreneurship and small business development in New York State.

Other notables present at the event included NYC Councilmember John Liu; NYS Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and Carl Hum, President and CEO of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.

Of course my favorite awardees were the seven recipients of the CHILD CARE BUSINESS AWARDS. These individuals participated in the BOC Child Care Business Development Project and were selected from among 503 participants in the project. These awards were presented by our own Letisha Wadsworth who is a BOC board member
The seven recipients were:
Ingrid Arevalo, Chiquilandia;
Laura Ceballos, The Blue Sky Group Family Day Care;
Sheila Fryar-Ashley, Little Busy Bodies;
Hattie Griffin, Snuggle Bears Family Day Care;
Barbara Mescheck, Mother Bee’s Daycare;
Desiree Stewart, Fingerprints Christian Learning Center;
Joan Hallet, My Babies Footprints Academy.
The event was a smashing success. ‘Way to go Leslie Winter (Board Chair) and Nancy Carin (Executive Director)! I’m looking forward to next year.

For more information about the Business Outreach Center Network go to www.bocnet.org.