Hundreds of children received Christmas gifts and posed with Santa on Dec. 22 during the Caribbean-American Center of New York, Inc.’s (CACNY) 25th Annual Children’s Christmas Party at Community Worship Center (CWC) Church of the Nazarene in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.
Trinidadian-born Jean Alexander, CACNY’s co-founder and executive director, told Caribbean Life on Wednesday that the event was held in collaboration with CWC’s Youth Group. The church is located at 1160 Bedford Ave.
Alexander said the youths and the secretary, Barbara Williams-Day, decorated the venue and helped with planning and distribution of gifts – from “wrapping, display and actual presentations with Santa.”
“The youths also helped with serving the food and refreshments before assisting Santa in presenting over 150 toys, hats and gloves to babies up to 16-year-olds,” said Alexander, disclosing that some of CACNY’s Board Members attend the church.
She said this was the only place where the presentation took place this year for Christmas, “as CACNY do not have enough supplies for another event.”
“As Santa arrived, the children squealed with delight in anticipation, as they lined up by age to get to our jolly Santa for their gifts,” Alexander said. “I was quite pleased and relieved how wonderful the evening progressed.
“The church elders and Barbara were very pleased, and asked us to continue doing more projects with them during the year, which we agreed to,” she added.
Alexander said she and fellow Trinidadian Dolly L. Williams, then CACNY’s chairperson, started CACNY’s Annual Children’s Christmas Party in 1998.
She said Williams, president of A. Williams Construction Company for over 40 years and former commissioner with New York City Planning Commission, approached her with the notion of providing new toys at Christmas time for children residing in homeless shelters in Brooklyn.
Alexander said that, while the non-profit CACNY, in 1998, did not have “available cash on hand”, it did not prevent them from proceeding with their initiative.
She said they went shopping for over 100 toys, paid for by Williams, and that they both personally delivered them to shelters in Brooklyn.
“Over the ensuing years, this venture grew by leaps and bounds to thousands, and CACNY eventually joined up with New York City’s Department of Homeless Services, serving some 30 shelters in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, with new clothes, toys, shoes, warm coats, hats, gloves and scarves,” Alexander said.
“Of course, the events were always festive, with Caribbean holiday and parang music, exciting games, food, dance competition and entertainment before Santa appeared to deliver his truck load of toys,” she added.
Up to 2018, Alexander said children were bused to various event locations by New York City agencies.
Since 2019, she said CACNY no longer works with the Department of Homeless Services, “as some donors, mainly the large toy companies, like Mattel, and others who imported toys from China, drastically cut back due to tariff rates and COVID-19.
“Nevertheless, this did not stop CACNY from its long-standing goal of bringing joy and happiness to the less fortunate children,” Alexander said.
From a few thousands in the shelter system to basically hundreds now, she said CACNY serves children in under-served areas in Brooklyn and Queens, with much fewer donors.
Alexander said Delivering Good, formally KIDS-Kids In Distressed Situations; sponsoring donor for over 20 years, Lloyd Shulman, head of JW Mays & Company; CACNY’s current chairperson, Sharondale Brackett-McIntosh; Xavier High School in Manhattan; and Spectrum are CACNY’s “largest continuous donors.”
She said other supporters comprise: Con Edison; Brooklyn Department of Parks & Recreation; New York City Council, via NYC Department of Youth & Community Development; NYS Sen. Roxanne Persaud; and Brooklyn City Council Members Rita Joseph, Farah Louis and Crystal Hudson.
Alexander said, for the first time this year, Healthfirst and Emblem Health supported CACNY.
She said CACNY has grown to provide numerous FREE multi-services to thousands of youths annually for in-school and after-school tutoring services; back-to-school events for children, with hundreds of new backpacks filled with school supplies; holiday parties; special events; and a bi-annual College Scholarship Benefit & Awards Gala.
On Oct. 26, 2023, Alexander said six minority college students received cash scholarships, “as CACNY honored 12 deserving individuals who went above and beyond the call of duty during the darkest days at the beginning of COVID-19.”
She said plans have already begun for CACNY 2025 Gala.
CACNY is located in the Brooklyn War Memorial Building at 195 Cadman Plaza West, downtown Brooklyn.
Alexander said CACNY was formed in 1987 “to provide needed services to immigrants and minorities in New York.
