Sunnyside Shines
After Devastating Fire, Sunnyside Community
Joins Hands to Help Displaced Neighbors
www.qns.com I LIC COURIER I JANUARY 2019 13
The morning of Dec. 13, a devas-tating
fire ripped through the heart of
Sunnyside, destroying six businesses
on Queens Boulevard between 45th
and 46th Streets. In the process, over
100 employees found themselves out
of work in the middle of the holidays.
That’s when something truly extraor-dinary
happened: a neighborhood
opened its arms and pocketbooks to
provide for the displaced employees,
many of whom supported families
and were working to paycheck to
paycheck.
Sunnyside Shines together with
a wide consortium of community
partners, businesses, individuals,
and elected officials spearheaded a
massive response campaign. Within
five days of the fire, a community fund-raiser
was organized and was attended
by over 1,000. An emergency resource
fair was held for displaced employees
within days of the fire, connecting over
30 of the displaced employees to new
job leads and assistance with applying
for unemployment and other essential
benefits. One week after the fire, own-ers
of the destroyed businesses gath-ered
for a Business Recovery Session
with the New York City Department of
Small Businesses Disaster Response
team, co-hosted by Sunnyside Shines
and Queens Community Board 2 to
learn more about available resources
available to them.
But perhaps the most remarkable
response came in the form of do-nations
from those who wished to
help workers displaced as a result
of the fire; as of January 11th, over
$165,000 have been raised to provide
emergency, short-term relief to 103
individuals who registered with the
Sunnyside Fire Relief Fund. Sunnyside
Shines is stewarding the funds, and
thus far, has distributed over $60,000
to beneficiaries to provide them with
short-term, emergency relief. In the
words of one worker, who has since
found work at Pete’s Grill in Sunny-side,
said “This month… I don’t have
to worry about not making my rent.”
It was a sentiment shared by many
aid recipients, who reported that the
relief funds have helped them survive
a potentially disastrous situation for
them and their families.
Jaime-Faye Bean, Executive Direc-tor
of Sunnyside Shines, underscores
the importance of the community in
making such a remarkable response
possible. “We were able to provide a
framework to manage a smooth and
swift response,” she notes, “but this
never would have happened without
the passion and commitment of this
tight-knit community.”
Bean went on to announce that as
a result of this powerful response to
the Dec. 13 fire, Sunnyside Shines has
created the Sunnyside Shines Busi-ness
Community Disaster Program.
This is a program that can be activated
by the Sunnyside Shines Board of
Directors’ Executive Committee in
response to events that significantly
impact the business district of the
Photos courtesy of Bantry Bay Publik House, Ty Sullivan and Sunnyside Ballet
neighborhood, in an effort to provide
short-term relief to those individuals
suffering a loss of income or interest
in the business district due to a spe-cific
disaster. The Sunnyside Shines
Fire Relief Fund is the first activation
of this new program. “We are deeply
appreciative of the trust our commu-nity
has placed in us to ensure that
their gifts to the Fire Relief Fund are
disbursed to employees who were
affected by the December 13th fire,”
notes Bean. “The Business Community
Disaster Program gives our community
reassurance that in the future, we
stand ready to provide an organized,
well-managed response to events that
impact our district.”
Sunnyside Shines has published
a detailed overview of the Sunnyside
Shines Fire Relief Fund guidelines on
their website, and will also be pub-lishing
an audit of the Fund once all
relief has been distributed to qualified
individuals. To learn more, visit www.
sunnysideshines.org/firerelieffund.
The December 13th fire devastated six businesses on
Queens Boulevard in Sunnyside.
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