Queens Community House Recognizes Local Champions

Queens Community House (QCH) honored The Women’s Club of Forest Hills with the Local Champion Award at its Annual Spring event on April 30, 2019. The award recognizes individuals and groups in the Forest Hills/Rego Park community for their dedicated work in philanthropy and neighborhood strengthening.

“The Women’s Club of Forest Hills has been an active and integral part of the community since its inception in 1913,” said QCH Executive Director Ben Thomases. “The Club’s annual luncheon has raised thousands of dollars for dozens of worthy charities in Queens, and we are honored to have been a recipient of their generosity.”

Louise Naples, Women’s Club of Forest Hills President accepted the award. “It is all about philanthropy,” she said. “What we do helps you do what you do, and that’s our mission.”

QCH also presented its 2019 Queens Community Builder Award to Jaime Weisberg of Jackson Heights. The annual award recognizes a current Queens resident whose volunteer efforts have served to unite and engage neighbors of all backgrounds, and who has demonstrated qualities of humility, tenacity, courage, compassion, and collaboration.

Weisberg is an active member of American Families United, which supports families facing immigration status battles. She has also organized educational workshops and by-stander intervention trainings through her involvement with Kehillat Tikvah, a progressive Jewish congregation in Jackson Heights. She co-founded a group called “Hearts Across Queens” to address the rise in hate crimes and violence in our borough, and throughout our nation.

“I am humbled and honored to receive this award,” Jaime said. “When I first started organizing in queens, I worked with Queens Community House on a number of major campaigns, including Willets Point and Hunters Point South. On a more personal note, I have a child in QCH’s Beacon Program at P.S. 149, and she looks forward to going every single day. It is a wonderful opportunity for her. I appreciate the honorarium that comes with this award, and I am excited to give it right back to the Beacon Program.”

Queens Borough President Melinda Katz paid tribute to The Women’s Club and Weisberg by delivering citations during the program. She was represented by Brent Weitzberg, Director of Health and Human Services and Seniors, who reiterated Katz’s support. “On behalf of the nearly 2.4 million residents in Queens, The World’s Borough, we thank The Women’s Club of Forest Hills and Jaime Weisberg for their great work, and for being the recipient of Queens Community House’s Local Champions Awards.”

More than 100 guests were in attendance at the event, held at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills.