Newark Mayor Corey Booker onstage with young people from the New Jersey All Stars at the New Jersey DSY Benefit Dinner on Oct. 29.

Mayor Cory Booker Thanks New Jersey All Stars

Newark Mayor Cory Booker was the featured speaker at the New Jersey Development School for Youth Benefit Dinner on October 29th at the Robert Treat Hotel.  Before a sold-out room of 200 business people and philanthropists from across New Jersey, Mayor Booker praised the DSY and the All Stars Project as a leader in the effort to transform the lives of poor urban youth.

"To me, the All Stars Project is a visible manifestation of the hope and prayers and faith that many of us have in humanity," Booker said, "It's focusing on our children and recognizing that they are indeed the promise of a better day in the future.  It's looking at our children not as unfortunate inheritors of difficult circumstances but recognizing if we unleash their genius, they can very well transform the world.'

The mayor concluded, "We are tonight involved in an organization that in my opinion is doing what has made this nation great for so long.  We as Americans united have shown that we can make our way out of no way, that we can make it up the rough side of the mountain…and here we have an organization that refuses to accept the impossible, refuses to accept the status quo.  So thank you all for what you are doing…thank you for choosing the All Stars."

The dinner raised $210,000, completing funding for the New Jersey Development School for Youth’s fall 2007 training program.

And the Shows Keep on Going!

The most recent New Jersey All Stars Talent Show took place on December 1st at Barringer High School in Newark. Eighty young people sang, danced, stepped, and rapped to the delight of an audience of more than three hundred. First time New Jersey ASTSN performers Dance Factory took the grand prize for their high-energy moves.

The All Stars Project will continue its work in 2008, helping more New Jersey youth than ever before to grow and develop! For more information on the New Jersey All Stars, contact Program Manager Ofronama Biu at 973-622-5506, ext. 303, or
obiu@allstars.org.