Gentile And Recchia Award $1.9 Million Grant To GEC
Councilmen Vincent Gentile and Domenic Recchia awarded a $1.9 million grant to the Guild for Exceptional Children (GEC), a Brooklyn-based non-profit focused on helping developmentally disabled children and the elderly. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle is reporting that the money will be used to help the agency renovate its Bay Ridge base (301 68th Street).
Despite its name, the Guild for Exceptional Children caters to both children and the elderly and has been in operation for almost 50 years. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle described what the GEC is planning to do with the money:
The grant, coupled with an estimated $400,000 that the Guild for Exceptional Children (GEC) plans to raise on its own, will allow the agency to move its senior citizens program from its current location on the second floor of its headquarters at 260 68th St. to the first floor.
That’s no small matter, according to GEC Executive Director Paul Cassone, who said the elderly developmentally disabled clients, many of them in their 70s and 80s, are having trouble navigating the stairs. “We do have an elevator. But I would hate to think about what would happen in the event of a fire and we had to get all of our people out,” he told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
The GEC has been looking for a way to renovate the first floor to create larger spaces that would allow the agency to move the senior citizens program down to the first floor for more than 20 years.
“A set of floor plans for this had been done 20 years ago. The problem has always been how do we pay for it,” Cassone said.
Working with Gentile, Recchia, as chairman of the Finance Committee, obtained the money to help the GEC pursue its renovation plans. Recchia noted that the GEC was worthy of help.
“You look at the needs and wants of the community and the number of people they serve,” Recchia told the Daily Eagle. “The GEC, has a great staff and great leadership.”
For his part, Gentile declared that the GEC was, “[an] anchor and icon in the community.”