Click here to see photos of honorees with The Mayor, here to see images from the awards ceremony, and here for a gallery of the business expo.
Queens Theatre in the Park staged an award-winning performance on Thursday, February 4. But there was no play – instead, attendees got right down to business, Queens business.
On the cold, winter night of February 4, the theater in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park was aglow as The Queens Courier and Queens Business Today held the newspaper group’s second annual “Rising Stars” Awards and Networking Event.
Five hundred people, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a host of City Councilmembers and Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, arrived to celebrate Queens’ top 40 business leaders under the age of 40. But before they filled the theater’s auditorium for the awards ceremony, guests mingled among expo tables, networked and snacked at a cocktail hour and posed for photographs the Mayor.
Bloomberg, the recipient of the “Star of Stars” award, headlined the evening, which was presented by American Airlines and sponsored by TD Bank, Parker Jewish Institute for Healthcare and Rehabilitation; Flushing Bank; Con Edison; CUNY; F&T Group; the U.S. Army; Queens County Savings Bank; the Ciampa Organization; Farrell Fritz, P.C.; and the New York Daily News.
The night’s honorees spanned the hospitality, finance, real estate, entertainment, health care and retail industries. Also among the award recipients were two local elected officials and the 17-year-old “Rookie Rising Star,” Brandon Elias, honored for his impressive community service accomplishments.
This year’s “Rising Stars,” like last, featured a popular raffle. But this year, the $2,000 in proceeds from the giveaway, sponsored by American Airlines and Sandals, will benefit Partners for Health, which has been working on the ground in Haiti for over 20 years, providing a comprehensive and community-based approach to alleviating disease and poverty.
Glen Greenberg, of Elmont Glass Company, was the lucky winner of a pair of round-trip tickets and a four-day/three-night vacation to Sandals’ Beaches Turks & Caicos Resort Villages and Spa.
“It’s a real pleasure to be able to bring so many unique business leaders together,” Queens Courier Co-Publisher Joshua Schneps said. “Our goal with these events is not only to recognize outstanding individuals but bring them together to foster business. And the fact that we were able to lend a helping hand to Haiti at the same time just makes it all the more special.”
