AVIS Recognizes TORCH Founder for "Trying Harder"

TORCH Founder and President Peter Drakoulias was presented with the Avis We Try Harder Award on September 10, 2003 at Yankee Stadium for his outstanding work in community service, including the founding of TORCH. Thanks to Avis for recognizing what we here at TORCH have known all along about Peter - that he tries harder every day!

Click on the AVIS logo for more information about the award.

 

TORCH December Fundraiser A Big Success!

The TORCH Fundraiser held on Tuesday, December 9, 2003 at the hip, upscale Manhattan restaurant and lounge Snackbar was an overwhelming success. TORCH welcomed returning sponsors and supporters as well as many new faces. The attendees bid on such exciting auction items as autographed Mohammed Ali boxing trunks, HBO Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen passes and an autographed 1973 New York Knicks Championship Team basketball. Attendees were also spotted buying an arms length of raffle tickets at a time, thereby maximizing their chances of winning the grand prize of two tickets to Puerto Rico on American Airlines.

Thank you to all of our supporters, volunteers and donors who all contributed in making the event such a success. We hope to see you at future TORCH events!

Event Sponsors

Where Are They Going 2002?

TORCH is proud to announce that all 11 of the program's graduates are heading to college this fall. The following is an impressive listing of schools participants will be attending:
Albany
Binghamton (2)
City College
City Tech
Columbia
Lafayette
Morgan State
Parsons
Penn State
Stevens Tech

We plan to keep in close contact with our first group of alumni and will eagerly post updates of their success in college and beyond.

TORCH Kicks Off the Summer with A Happy Hour at NELLS

TORCH supporters kicked off the summer with a Happy Hour at NELLS on Tuesday, June 11, 2002. Drew Estate Cigars provided a wide variety of their cigar line for guests to sample and Air France provided 2 round trip tickets to Paris for the raffle.

Thanks to Title Sponsors ABCO Peerless Sprinkler Corporation and Soundtone Floors, Inc., along with Silver Sponsors Antovel Gelberg and Marcello Tile Company, Inc. and Bronze Sponsors Commodore Construction Corp. Encore Decorators, Inc., Ess & Vee Contractors, Inc., Gale Woodworking, Inc., Kadco Electrip Corp. and StructureTone and all of the attendees and volunteers this was TORCH’s most successful Happy Hour to date.

Event Photos

Happy Hour Sponsors

We hope to see you at the next TORCH Event!

This year's exciting Music Fest 2002, the TORCH music project, that assigns participants with the challenge of planning, promoting, and running a music event that showcases talented NYC high school student was held on Friday, May 17th with the generous support of JP Morgan Chase at Humanities High School.

This year's event featured a wide range of high school performers, singing, acting and dancing all contributed to an exciting event.

The evening's judges; Donnovan Andrews, String Theory Records, Nicole Duncan Smith, Strategic Marketing & Special Projects, Rush Communications, Joe Cerini, A&R Epic Records , Haqq Islam, President & CEO, University Records and Tony Sledge, Power 105.1 all were faced with the difficult task of choosing the top three performances. Honors went to: 1st place Isa Rosado singing a heartwarming rendition of “My Heart Will Go On”; 2nd place 13 dancers who call themselves “New York’s Finest ”Tiffany Adams, Sonia Allen, Chenay Azizis, Tasheena Cameron, Dymonde Davis, Thaiis Garcia, Makeda Johnson, Tahora Manning, Erica Miller, Angela Morris. Nachez Sanders, Tai Thomas and Sharell Walker and third place winners Jonah Peppiatt and Derek Wikstrom performed “Freshmen”. Congratulations to all of the winners and contestants!

TORCH participants are looking forward to next year's Music Fest 2003 – stay tuned! (no pun intended)

Event Photos (click to enlarge)

New Venue—Old and New Faces

TORCH's Happy Hour Fundraiser at the new Lounge at elmo's on Wednesday, November 13th, 2002 was a big success - bringing together many long time supporters as well as many new faces.

View event pictures

Along with TORCH's absorption of the Red Wagon came a host of new attendees at the event. But, as always, it was great to see so many returning supporters and sponsors. Silver sponsors included A-VAL Architectural Metal Corp, Cendant, Eagle Dismantling Corp., Eurotech, Gale Woodworking, Inc., NJS Architectural Woodwork and Soundtone Floors, Inc. Bronze Sponsors included Antovel Gelberg Painting & Wallpapering, Inc., Emanon Electric, Encore Decorators Inc., Marcello Tile Company, Inc, and Techno Acoustics Inc. The combination helped the program surpass the event funding expectations!

Thanks to American Airlines for providing 2 roundtrip tickets for the grand raffle prize, as well as Avis for topping off the package with a three day rental car. Lucky winner Marc Siden is busy planning a get-a-away! Thank you to our other raffle donors Michael Deutsch, Golf Club at Chelsea Piers, Krup's Kitchen & Bath, Naked Music, Paul Labrecque Salon and SculptureCenter. And thank you to Planters for providing give a way peanuts.

A big thanks goes out to Cathy Nolan who drew caricatures for attendees, Drew Estate for providing cigars and Madhu Dhas for taking pictures at the event. And of course, we can't run an event without the help of all the volunteers for the evening - we appreciate all of your help!

Thank you to everyone who attended this exciting event—we hope to see you in at future TORCH fundraisers and activities. Don't forget to bring some new faces with you!

Event Sponsors

TORCH Honored with Educator Award from AAF District Two

District Two American Advertising Federation (AAF) recognized TORCH at its Diversity Achievement Awards 2002 Seventh Annual Gala at The Sky Club on Wednesday, January 16th.

The Diversity Achievement Awards were founded to raise awareness of the critical need for, and the benefits derived from, diversity in the advertising and marketing community. The Educator Award recognizes an individual or an entity responsible for increasing awareness of the general population to the aspirations, obstacles, contributions, and progress of minority groups.

Peter Drakoulias, TORCH Founder and President, proudly accepted the award on behalf of the program commenting, "we appreciate this distinguished award and your recognition is a real confidence booster".

TORCH Winter Fundraiser a "Fiery" Success

On Thursday, January 24, 2002 TORCH held its Winter Fundraiser at Fiamma (which means fire in Italian) Osteria.

Event attendees had the distinction of being the first to eat and party in Steve Hanson's B.R. Guest Inc. new Soho restaurant, which by all the feedback is sure to be the top new dining spot. (Be sure to make your reservations now, Fiamma is opening in March).

The event silent auction was a huge success, the Paris Get-A-Way package created the biggest buzz along with such items as autographed Muhammed Ali gloves and two perfect game baseballs autographed by Don Larson and Yogi Berra. Items also of note included an official fireman's helmet from Engine Company 230 in Bedford-Stuyvesant paying tribute to their lost heroes from September 11th and an autographed Tiki Barber football and picture. All proceeds from these items were donated directly to Engine 230 Family Fund and the 35-40 Family Relief Fund, Inc.

TORCH participants were on hand and helped sell raffle tickets. Top raffle prizes included a 20" television, microwave and spa packages.

Thank you to all our sponsors, attendees, volunteers, TORCH board of directors and advisory board for helping us to exceed our funding goals and making the event such a memorable evening!

Event Photos (click to enlarge)

Event Sponsors