32 THE QUEENS COURIER • BUZZ • MARCH 4, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
buzz
‘Coming 2 America’ to premiere at Flushing Meadows Corona Park
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
The long-awaited sequel to the Eddie
Murphy comedy classic “Coming to
America” will have its world premiere
in Flushing Meadows Corona Park
March 5.
Queens Borough President Donovan
Richards will make an introduction during
Life’s WORC names new senior director of development
BY CONNOR WALTER
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Life’s WORC, the nonprofi t that helps
individuals with intellectual and developmental
disabilities and autism, has named
Shannon Preston as its new senior director
of development.
Preston previously served as director of
advancement with the Tilles Center for
the Performing Arts and brings 13 years
of senior development experience to her
new role at Life’s WORC.
Preston believes that her experience
in fundraising, recruiting and increasing
donations will be vital to her new position
as senior director of development.
In this role, Preston will oversee the organization’s
development, public relations,
event management and community outreach
activities.
“In my most recent role at the Tilles
Center for the Performing Arts at Long
Island University in Brookville, I am
especially proud of having increased its
total contributions by 67 percent over a
three-year period,” Preston said. “Other
achievements at Tilles include my reviving
event fundraising for its annual gala
and golf tournament by recruiting toplevel
honorees, committees and participants,
as well as increasing annual donations
from corporate and private foundations
and state funding exponentially.”
Preston has also begun securing funds
for individuals with disabilities as it pertains
to Life’s WORC.
“Relating to Life’s WORC, I also secured
funding for Tilles Center’s Sensory
Friendly Program designed specifi cally
for individuals with disabilities,” Preston
said. “At the Metropolitan Opera, I lead a
staff responsible for raising an average of
$13 million in unrestricted giving annually,
played a major role in increasing annual
event revenues by over 100 percent in
a 10-year period, and helped to create,
launch and expand the Met’s International
Council, a group of donors and board
members from all over the world.”
Life’s WORC was founded in the 1970’s
by Victoria Schneps with the help of
Geraldo Rivera. Preston explained the
importance of the organization’s history
and expansion through Queens to the
work it is doing today.
“Life’s WORC was founded in the early
1970s following an investigative report by
Geraldo Rivera who, as a young reporter
in 1972, exposed the deplorable conditions
that existed within the Willowbrook
State School, then the largest institution
in the nation serving children with
developmental disabilities. Rivera fi rst
learned about these conditions from Life’s
WORC’s founder Vicki Schneps,” Preston
said. “Her daughter, Lara, diagnosed at an
early age with severe brain damage, was
a resident at Willowbrook. When cuts in
state funding caused the institution to fall
into extensive disrepair, Schneps, along
with other concerned individuals, picketed
to fi ght for the rights of Willowbrook’s
more than 5,000 residents.”
Aft er Willowbrook’s closing, as Preston
explains, Life’s WORC took on a significant
role in the community by assisting
individuals with developmental disabilities.
“When Rivera’s scathing investigative
report uncovered the atrocities inside
the institution, national outcry ultimately
forced its closing. It was in
the early ‘70s that Schneps would
start Life’s WORC and open its
fi rst home in Little Neck, Queens.
Its fi rst residents were former
Willowbrook residents,” Preston
said. “Today, Life’s WORC provides
beautiful homes located
across the region,
from Manhattan and
Queens to Nassau
and Suffolk, for
individuals with
disabilities, as well
as Community
Services, Financial
and Trust Services,
and its Family
Center for Autism.”
Th e mission of
Life’s WORC is
to provide supportive
services, programs and resources
which help individuals with intellectual
and developmental disabilities and autism
lead productive, fulfi lling lives. During
the COVID-19 pandemic, it was important
to Life’s WORC that the organization
kept their facilities clean and their individuals
healthy.
“During COVID-19, Life’s WORC’s
role in the community was as
important as ever as we
worked diligently to keep
the individuals with disabilities
and autism
that we serve safe and
healthy while continuing
to provide a variety
of necessary services,”
Preston said.
Preston will bring
a diff erent set of
experiences to Life’s
WORC. She will
be responsible for
leading the nonprofi
t as senior
director of
development
and advocating
for the
funding of the
organization.
Photo courtesy
of Life’s WORC
the “Coming 2 America” screening as
Queens Drive-In kicks off its second season
at the New York Hall of Science.
“’Coming to America’ is the quintessential,
iconic Queens fi lm, and we
are beyond thrilled to host one of the
only screenings of its sequels, ‘Coming
2 America,’ right here in the fi lm’s backyard,”
Richards said. “I am proud to continue
the borough president offi ce’s tradition
of hosting drive-in fi lms in our home
borough. I thank the Museum of Moving
Image, Rooft op Films, the New York Hall
of Science and Amazon for being valuable
partners in welcoming ‘Coming 2
America’ back home in Queens.”
Th e March 5 premiere is free and open
to the public with an RSVP, and participants
will receive free food and merchandise
courtesy of Amazon Studios. Queens
Drive-In hosted sold-out events last summer
and fall, off ering family entertainment
as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged
the borough, particularly in the neighborhoods
of Corona, Jackson Heights and
Elmhurst just west of Flushing Meadows
Corona Park.
Th e 2021 spring season will run from
March through June providing screenings
and other cultural events with a
capacity of 200 cars at the New York
Hall of Science parking lot. Th e 2020
series included more than 20 free community
events, raised thousands of dollars
for local community organizations, and
provided work for hundreds of employees
and food vendors, making it a vital
resource for the community and providing
a rare opportunity to gather and
celebrate the arts as the neighborhoods
rebounded from tragedy.
“Th e Queens Drive-In fi lm screenings
brought much-needed respite for families
amid this pandemic,” Councilman
Francisco Moya said. “I am proud to continue
to support this initiative as we go
into the spring and a new sense of normalcy
with one of our favorite forms
of entertainment. Th ank you to Rooft op
Films, the Museum of Moving Image and
the New York Hall of Science for off ering
safe, creative and entertaining ways for
families to come together.”
Th e partners continue to hold audience
and staff safety as their fi rst priority, and
for this reason screenings will be available
only to attendees watching the fi lms from
their enclosed automobiles until further
notice, in accordance with city and state
regulations. Th e partners will remain in
conversation with the city and state agencies
to determine whether in the future it
will be safe and legal to adapt the event
spaces to accommodate socially distanced
walk-up attendees. For more information
visit the Queens Drive-In website.
Events will include more than a dozen
double features, including playful pairings
of urban dystopias “Escape from New
York” and “Robocop”; the chaotic adolescence
of “Dazed and Confused” and “Fast
Times at Ridgemont High”; the groundbreaking
“Shaft and Boyz n the Hood”;
“Bruce Lee in Fist of Fury vs. Meiko Kaji
in Lady Snowblood”; classic action capers
“North by Northwest” and “From Russia
with Love”; “Rocky and Creed”; beloved
tales of female independence “Desperately
Seeking Susan” and “Th elma and Louise”;
and, song-and-dance standard-bearers
from two diff erent eras: “Singin’ in the
Rain” and “Magic Mike XXL.”
Tickets will be priced starting at $35
per car (up to 5 passengers per car) and
$45 for double features. Members of the
presenting organizations will receive a 20
percent discount.
QNS/File
Coming 2 America is set to make its world premiere in Flushing Meadows Corona Park as Queens
Drive-In kicks off its second season at the New York Hall of Science.
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