All of us at the Hope Fund are hard at work preparing for the upcoming application cycle and the next successful year of the Hope Reichbach Memorial Foundation internship program, but we’d like to take a moment to thank somebody who has gone above and beyond the call of duty in supporting the mission of the Hope Fund to provide internship opportunities for New York City college students. As you may know, we recently held a benefit concert for the fund at St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn Heights, featuring Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music and the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra. All the proceeds from the concert—upwards of seven thousand dollars—went directly to the Hope Fund.

We were able to keep all the proceeds for the fund itself thanks to the efforts of one unbelievably generous individual: Ms. Wanda Fleck, the manager of the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music. Wanda not only paid for all the concert expenses out of her own pocket, but she also took the lead in planning and coordinating the event. Thanks to her remarkable generosity, the scholarship for one of this year’s Hope Fund interns is already paid for in full. We’d also like to thank the musicians who selflessly donated their time and energy to making this concert happen.

Wanda most certainly did not ask for us to write this note, and was content to contribute her time and money without recognition, but in light of the extraordinary magnitude of her aid to the Hope Fund, we would feel remiss if we did not mention and praise what she has done for us. We are deeply appreciative and deeply grateful for all her work; there are surely not many people like her in this world. It is thanks to Wanda and people like her that the Hope Fund is able to continue its work, and to keep the memory of Hope alive.

Happy holidays to you and yours, from all of us at the Hope Fund.

Dear friends,

The church was packed with over 400 attendees!

Thank you all for your support and attendance at the benefit concert! In what was truly a lovely event, family and friends of Hope and Gus joined together on November 18 at St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn Heights to attend a benefit concert. The concert was put on by the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music, together with the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra, and directed by Nicholas Armstrong. The performance featured Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20 and Beavers’s Roscoe, a concerto for violin, narrator and orchestra on a text by William Kennedy. Harris Yulin, a good friend and wonderful actor, performed the part of the narrator in the Beavers concerto.

The concert was a wonderful tribute to Hope Reichbach and her father Honorable Gustin L. Reichbach, who passed away in July 2012. Over 500 people attended the event, and many partook in a toast after the concert!

Some photos from the event are below:

The musicians included J Freivogel and Nicholas Mann on violin and David Geber on cello.

Ellen Meyers and Allyson Chung, a Hope Fund committee member.

Hope Fund members and event volunteers Lily Mandlin and Daniela Quiroz!

The Karasik sisters hand out fliers at the door!

Please join us for a concert to honor the memory of the Honorable Gustin L. Reichbach (1946-2012) and Hope (1988-2011), daughter of Judge Reichbach and Ellen Meyers:

Sunday, November 18 at 3 PM
Church of St. Ann and the Holy Trinity
Clinton Street at Montague Street, Brooklyn Heights

The Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music, together with the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra (artistic director: Nicholas Armstrong), will be playing Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20 and Beavers’s Roscoe, a concerto for violin, narrator and orchestra on a text by William Kennedy. J Freivogel and Nicholas Mann are featured on violin, David Geber is featured on cello, and Harris Yulin, our good friend and a wonderful actor, will perform the part of the narrator in the Beavers concerto.

All proceeds will be donated to the Hope Reichbach Memorial Fund.

Tickets: $20 at the door, $10 for students (You can pre-order online here)

For additional information, call (718) 855-3053 or (347) 915-5141, or visit the websites of Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music or the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra.

Dear Friends,

All of us here at the Fund are pleased to report the successful completion of the first-ever Hope Reichbach Memorial Fund summer internship program!

Intern Ben Joson knocked on dozens of doors in East New York on behalf of VOCAL-NY, seeking signatures to end the NYPD’s “stop-and-frisk” policy. Ariel Estrella wrote about hundreds of public mural projects for Groundswell, the youth arts organization for which she interned. As part of her internship with Brooklyn Defender Services, Brenda Grande shadowed attorneys in the courtroom during arraignments and sentencing hearings, an experience that affirmed her aspirations of becoming an immigration lawyer. Nia Gumbs worked in the classroom at The HOPE Program, a nonprofit job readiness program, helping its students learn the skills they needed to find a job. Colleen Mims’ helped coordinate a major event for the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, a community development organization that partners with residents and businesses to improve the quality of life of Central Brooklyn.

Continue reading →

Ellen, Hope and Gus

Dear Friends,

On hot summer days like today—the days that our friend Hope Reichbach loved most of all—it’s hard to believe she’s been gone for fifteen months. On July 14th, we lost Hope’s greatest role model and mentor—her father, Gus Reichbach. As a community, we gather again to reflect on how best to honor this incredible public servant, father, and progressive leader. Hope was her father’s daughter through and through, and we know that we can best honor Gus by honoring her.

Last summer, though our grief was still raw, we began thinking what we could do to honor Hope. We set out to create something in memory of the intrepid, ambitious 22-year-old young woman we so missed. A core group of Hope’s friends began meeting on Bond Street in Brooklyn, in the house where Hope was raised and where her mom, Ellen Meyers, still makes her home.

And so we created the Hope Reichbach Memorial Fund, a fund that would give young people opportunities to work toward social justice and progressive values in Brooklyn, as Hope had done. The fund provides generous stipends to college students in financial need for summer internships in Brooklyn-based community organizing, activism, and civic leadership.

This summer, the interns we’ve selected are bright, dynamic, and eager to make a positive impact on the world. These five interns recently began working at a great group of Brooklyn-based organizations that are offering opportunities for civic participation in many forms.

Hope’s much too short life continues to influence the politics, policies, and lives of the people of Brooklyn through the impact our interns are making on this community, and the influence the program will have on their paths. One year later, we are resolved to continue Hope’s legacy in this way.

July 24th would have been Hope’s 24th birthday. Please consider honoring her memory by making a gift to the Hope Reichbach Memorial Fund. The support of the community Hope built allows her values and her spirit to live on. Thank you for being a part of the Circle of Hope.

Donate online:

http://www.brooklyncommunityfoundation.org/give/hope-reichbach-fund

Donate by mail:
Please make checks payable to the Brooklyn Community Foundation–note the Hope Reichbach Memorial Fund in the memo section of the check. Donations to the Brooklyn Community Foundation for the Hope Reichbach Memorial Fund are tax deductible as provided by law.

Brooklyn Community Foundation / Hope Reichbach Memorial Fund
Attn: Development Office
45 Main Street, Suite 409
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Much love,
Hope’s friends and family