Letter from the President

Buffalo Renaissance Celebrates Its 40th Year

2020 was, to say the least, an interesting year to lead the Buffalo Renaissance Foundation. Despite the challenges presented, I am proud to report that our organization achieved a number of significant successes for our community.

The Buffalo Renaissance Foundation played a pivotal role in raising and distributing over $325,000 through the Western New York Feeds the Front Lines program. This initiative was responsible for providing free hot meals for our front line health care workers in the early months of the Covid pandemic.

In September, we raised a record amount at our reimagined annual golf outing at Wanakah Country Club. The tournament is the second-longest charity event in Western New York, and Covid did not hold us back.

In October, the Foundation committed $100,000 to the Westminster Economic Development Initiative for the reconstruction of a historic building in the Bailey Green Neighborhood on Buffalo’s East Side. The building will be used for offices, outreach, and training for residents of the East Side of Buffalo. Covid notwithstanding, that’s a pretty good year. 2021 will be even better.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Buffalo Renaissance Foundation. We have charted a year of community giving, communication, and celebration. The Foundation has commissioned a video that will chronicle the significant positive changes in Buffalo and Western New York since 1981, the year of our inception. The video will highlight the Buffalo Renaissance Foundation’s role in moving Buffalo forward for the past 40 years. We are excited to share in the success of our community.

We are also excited to welcome our three newest directors Jon Notarius, Michael Ross, and Damon Wojciechowski to the Foundation. All three gentlemen bring a long history of success and community involvement to our group. We look forward to their contributions to the Foundation in the years to come.

It is an honor to serve as President of the Buffalo Renaissance Foundation. I am grateful for the commitment and contributions of our entire Board of Directors. I am excited to celebrate our 40th year and continue our good work of promoting positive thinking and positive change to moving our community forward.

Veterans and Military Committee

Our annual Veterans Luncheon, an event that continues to grow and support our local Veteran community, was canceled due to the pandemic. Still, our Committee remained active, making local donations in 2020 to the Buffalo & Erie County Naval & Military Park and the CEPA Gallery.

Our donation to the Naval & Military Park was to support the Challenge Coin project, where they are selling four commemorative coins, which include the Naval & Military Park, USS The Sullivans, USS Croaker, and USS Little Rock.

The CEPA donation helped support a photography exhibit that spans four floors of veterans exploring the challenges of returning from battle and sharing their creative victories over circumstances in ODYSSEY / Warriors Come Home. Project founder Brendan Bannon and co-teaching artist Julian Chinana led participants identified by the Veterans One-stop Center of WNY through CEPA Gallery’s Odyssey Workshops to produce the artwork.

UB Athletics Scholarship

This year’s recipient of the UB Athletics scholarship award, a scholarship that was endowed from proceeds from the BRF’s first luncheon in 1991, is Marcy Barberic, a senior from Grand Island on the Women’s Soccer Team. Marcy is a Communications Major.

Sculptural Art Initiative

Our Spirit of Buffalo Sculptural Art series is in the process of finalizing its fifth and final sculpture with a piece scheduled for the grounds of the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library being completed in concert with our partner, Just Buffalo Literary. The final piece, named the Spirit of Inspiration, will be the work of Okunola Jeyfous, a Nigerian-American neuroscientist and photography enthusiast based in Chicago.

As well as finishing our fifth sculpture, we have entered a new joint effort in partnership with the Junior League of Buffalo on a new sculptural initiative to be installed on the Burchfield Penney Art Center Grounds. The proposed initiative will demonstrate to women and girls in our community that they have the capacity to achieve.

The statue will embody the essence of female power, capturing the long history of women’s impact in Western New York. The installation will allow visitors and community members to experience the significance of the artwork and its message. As the “Fearless Girl” sculpture in New York City has demonstrated, this statue promises opportunities for discourse around the contributions of women in our community. The BRF is proud to be a major contributor to this endeavor.