Oct. 2, 2016 By Hannah Wulkan
Philanthropy and self-love will take center stage at a fundraiser in Long Island City for breast cancer research later this month.
Woodbines Craft Kitchen is partnering with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Research Center to throw the Barefaced LIC-ers fundraiser at Woodbines at 47-10 Vernon Boulevard on October 20th from 7 to 10 p.m., celebrating beauty in all forms.
The idea for the fundraiser came about when Carla Nicdao and local LIC entrepreneur Julz Donald began talking about the standard of appearance as a woman in society.
“It can be hard when people that you work with or work for make a comment about your appearance without thinking it through,” explained Nicdao. “In the service industry, you are often expected to brush it off no matter how much it hurts, even though not fair.”
Nicdao said that having worked for many years in the service industry, she noticed that any time she did not wear makeup, people would often comment negatively on her appearance.
“The whole idea of the event is to empower everyone, both men and women, and to allow people to show up however they are comfortable, with or without makeup, and have them be accepted,” Nicdao said. “We wanted to put something good out there and set an example for everyone to accept who they are.”
The event fundraising goal is set at $5,000 to go towards cancer research, and will be raised through a raffle and donations from the community.
Nicdao said that they picked the charity because October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and it is a disease that affects many people throughout the world.
Donald said that many local businesses have donated goods and services to the raffle, and there has been an outpouring of community support.
“It’s a full community effort,” Donald said. “Local businesses are donating, local moms are posing for promotional material, there has been so much support.”
Woodbines will also donate the space and appetizers for the event, as well as $1 from every drink sold during the evening.
Donald explained that she has been involved with several charity efforts in the LIC community, but that this one seemed important because it not only offered an opportunity to raise awareness about an important social issue, but also to raise money for a good cause.
“We are basically getting people together to celebrate beauty in all forms, and Barefaced LIC-ers encourages people to come as they want to, makeup or not,” Donald said.
Donald added that there would be music, the raffle, and other activities throughout the night.
To learn more about the event and donate to the fundraiser, visit http://mskcc.convio.net/site/TR/GivingPages/AnnualGiving?team_id=56910&pg=team&fr_id=2641.
