Lenora Fulani and Pamela Lewis with the 2005 Phyllis Hyman Phat Friend Awardees.

Ten unsung adult heroes were honored at the All Stars Project’s eleventh annual Phyllis Hyman Phat Friend Awardsdinner, Tuesday October 11 at the Puck Building in lower Manhattan. The Phat Friend Awards benefit the youth programs of the non-profit All Stars Project, Inc. (ASP). Three hundred guests, including Wall Street executives, youth hosts and performers, volunteers, supporters and friends attended. The event was co-chaired by 98.7 KISS-FM Program Director, Toya Beasley, and Carolyn Mitchell, President, Magnet Portfolio Services.

The Phyllis Hyman Phat Friend Awards, named after the All Stars Project’s first celebrity spokesperson, are presented annually by All Stars youth to their community heroes — adults — who demonstrate their support for kids and youth concerns. Over many months, young people taking part in All Stars Project youth events, nominate deserving adults. An All Stars youth committee interviews the nominees and the awardees are chosen from those nominees. It is the only such award in New York — given to adults by young people. 

The 2005 awardees included: Joseph Rodriguez, a math and computer teacher at EBC East New York Public Safety High School in Brooklyn; Annie Wyche, the director of the Marie Garcia Staten Island Police Athletic League (PAL); Master Sergeant Ed Carr, an aerospace science teacher, basketball coach and youth mentor at the Bronx Aerospace High School; Nancy Taylor, an All Stars donor since 2000; Boris E. Loach, an elementary school teacher in Park Slope, Brooklyn; Kendra Newkirk, a history teacher at Acorn High School in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn; William Griffith, the Executive Director of the Fiver Foundation, a nonprofit group providing family support for youth aged 8-14;  Jennifer Whitney, a police/youth officer from the 81^st precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn; George E. Leonard, the principal of Bedford Academy in Bedford-Stuyvesant; and Adrienne Agusto, a dance teacher at the St. Fortunata School in East New York.

The 2005 Phyllis Hyman Phat Friend Awards raised $100,000 to benefit the youth development programs of the All Stars Project, Inc.