We just learned that longtime New York Cares Team Leader Allan Sih recently passed away.

Allan joined New York Cares in 1999 and quickly became a Team Leader.  He gave 1,155 hours of his time over the years, participating in an amazing 450 projects and leading 261 projects as a Team Leader.  He led new volunteer orientations as a member of our Speakers Bureau since 2003, inspiring thousands of New Yorkers as they joined the New York Cares community.

Allan was a regular at Dog Walking at BARC, Village Temple Meal Service, Meal Prep at God’s Love We Deliver, Reading at PS 150Q, and the Kickoff at the NYC Marathon, among his many projects.   In 2007, Allan received a New York Cares Leadership Award, and earned Presidential Service Awards more years than we can remember.

Allan’s dedication to serving others was an inspiration to all.  He was first to volunteer, last to leave a project, and made an immeasurable impact on our city and its people.  We send our deepest condolences to his friends and family.

Allan was truly a New Yorker who cared and we will miss him. New York Cares has established The Allan Sih Tribute Fund  to celebrate his life and deep commitment to volunteerism. Please click here to contribute.

By Gary Bagley, Executive Director

I wanted to make you aware of pending legislation that may eliminate funding for AmeriCorps, a critical source of support for nonprofits and other organizations that use volunteers.

The most recent budget to pass in the U.S. House of Representatives calls for the elimination of the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that administers the AmeriCorps program.  AmeriCorps is a national service program that deploys volunteers to nonprofit organizations for a nominal cost to help them build capacity to better serve their communities.

Read more and find out how people nationwide are taking action on March 15 at Saveservice.org.

New York Cares has benefited tremendously from the AmeriCorps program.  Last year, 11 AmeriCorps members worked alongside our 60 full-time paid staff, significantly increasing our ability to grow our programs. AmeriCorps members helped us expand our projects by 20% – resulting in an additional 24,000 volunteer opportunities that served 80,000 New Yorkers in need. Our staff can sustain these new programs, but we rely on AmeriCorps to fuel additional expansion at a time when many nonprofits have been forced to reduce services.

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Last Thursday, the New York Times published an article that highlighted poor performances on national science exams for New York City public school students. According to the article, “only 18 percent of the city’s public school fourth graders and 13 percent of its eighth graders demonstrated proficiency on the most recent national science exams”. This is far below national levels, where 33 percent of fourth graders and 29 percent of eight graders are proficient, and state levels, where 30 percent of fourth graders and 31 percent of eight graders are proficient in science. Considering New York City has so much to offer its students, from the Museum of Natural History to the New York Hall of Science, this is a disappointment.

New York Cares is doing the best it can to keep bringing more science into New York City classrooms. On our Mad Scientists projects, volunteers and students participate in hands-on science projects with real-world applications that are fun, educational, and expose students to a whole other side of science. Our Team Green projects also help science grow in the classroom by encouraging students to become social activists! Volunteers and students work on green-themed science experiments, community art projects, and service projects.

With the help of our volunteers on these fantastic projects, New York Cares is hoping to promote education in our city and encourage interest in science. Want to help out? Sign up for any of our Mad Scientists or Team Green projects here.

By Gail Harris, President of the Board of Directors, New York Cares

In late 2010, President Obama appointed New York Cares Board member Thomas Nides to a senior post in the US State Department.   Tom was sworn in as Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources on January 3^rd where he’ll serve as Chief Operating Officer serving under Secretary Clinton.  He was previously Chief Operating Officer of Morgan Stanley.

As he moves into this demanding new position, Tom is stepping down from our Board, on which he has been an active member since 2004.  Tom chaired our most successful Winter Benefit, helping raise more than $1.2 million for our work.  Over the years, he and Paul Taubman (his colleague on the Board and at Morgan Stanley) helped champion the firm’s involvement with New York Cares, as one of our most active corporate partners and most generous donors.  We’ll miss his incredible wisdom, astute counsel, and great sense of humor.  It’s a testament to his commitment to giving back to society that he is now engaged in public service.

On behalf of all of us at New York Cares, I’d like to extend our gratitude to Tom for his service and leadership, and congratulate him on his new office.

Since many people couldn’t donate coats in late December due the blizzard, we’ve extended coat collections at several locations.  If you have a coat to give, please visit:

• * New York Penn Station, LIRR and Amtrak concourses: Weekdays 7:30-9:30am
• * Port Authority Bus Terminal: Weekdays 7:30-9:30am
• * New York Cares Coat Drive Warehouse, 250 Hudson Street: Weekdays 9:30am-5:00pm
• * Manhattan Mini Storage locations

It’s not too late – help us collect as many coats as possible for New Yorkers who need them during this cold and snowy winter.

The New York Cares office will close for the holidays today at 1:00 p.m. and reopen Monday, January 3.

All volunteer projects will take place as scheduled during that time. Please contact your Team Leader if you have questions about a project you’re signed up for. In case of a project-related emergency, please call our emergency phone at 646-483-7080.

Happy Holidays to all our wonderful volunteers!

Although joblessness in New York City has hit its lowest level in 16 months, thousands of residents are still unemployed. If you’re one of these and you’re looking for a way to spend your days out of work productively, volunteering gives you the unique ability to develop new skills while on the job hunt and make a difference in your community.

New York Cares has around 100 daytime projects that need your help. As winter rolls in, more and more New Yorkers will find themselves in need of assistance. Starting today, you can ensure at least one more child is tutored, one more senior is visited, one more park is cleaned, or one more hungry person receives a meal.

An hour or two of your time can create meaningful change for your neighbors. To view projects that need volunteers in the next week, keep an eye on our Hot Projects feed. To do even more, become a Team Leader and gain valuable leadership skills.

New York Cares exists to help people like you take action and make change in their communities. We need your input to improve our service to you. Please take a brief survey to tell us why you volunteer, what motivates you to support charities, and which issues you care about most.

If you are a New York Cares volunteer, click here to fill out the survey. If you haven’t yet attended orientation, click here to give us your feedback. Thanks in advance for your help!

Now is a great time to get a team together for New York Cares Day.  We still need 2,000 more volunteers to sign-up so we can help every school accepted into this year’s program.

New York Cares Day is Saturday, October 23.

So if you still haven’t registered your team, what are you waiting for? The clock is ticking – go to our official registration page and sign up now.

Last Friday at the Mets vs. Astros game, the Mets and Citi held a special ceremony to present long-time New York Cares Team Leader Sam Fuhr with their Teammates in the Community Award, which honors volunteers who have demonstrated extraordinary service to the city.

Sam definitely fits that bill – he’s volunteered on over 200 projects – from organizing libraries, preparing meals for the disadvantaged, caring for shelter animals, and educating kids about local marine environmental issues.

New York Cares is proud to count Sam among our volunteer ranks, and we’re grateful to our friends at the Mets and Citi for extending such a unique honor to a New Yorker who cares!