News & Events

The New York Daily News Profiles One of Our Employee ‘Heroes!’

Since Maggie Prisinzano helped launch the Leake & Watts Community School program at JHS 123 in The Bronx two years ago, the school is off the New York City Board of Education's persistently dangerous list, and attendance is up. This year, the Board of Education has nominated Maggie, program director, for the New York Daily NewsHometown Hero in Education award. The newspaper’s profile shows why.

The article described Maggie's willingness to go "the extra miles for her students. Literally." She launched a Facebook campaign to collect prom dresses and suits for graduating students, because families couldn't afford to outfit the students themselves. She even drove five hours to her hometown in Virginia to pick up items.

Maggie collected 400 dresses and 200 suits in all. "I wanted [the students] to look and feel they had the opportunity to shine,” she said. The result: "The kids looked phenomenal."

Maggie will be honored at a special breakfast with other Hometown Heroes in early October. We congratulate her and all of the many people on staff who go above and beyond the call of duty each day.