Azalea Blossom Development Weekend

Azalea Blossom’s board and staff recently met in Brooklyn, New York for a weekend of professional development, meetings and fun! The core team, which consists of Founder/Director Margaret Jean Bernstein; Board members Vivian Roston (President), Ariana Williams (VP), Chelsea Cross (Secretary) and Natalie Adorno (Treasurer); and part time staff members, Kristen Amrhein (Director of Licensing and Publishing) and Amy Gong travelled from points throughout the United States and New York’s metropolitan region for the special event. Many of our team members had the opportunity to meet for the first time.

Saturday’s programming consisted of a lunch meeting at Jai Dee Thai restaurant in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, which was followed by a tour of American Legion, where we will be hosting our spring fundraiser. After the tour, the team was able to see our SAFE through the arts puppets face to face, thanks to the hospitality of Margaret’s cousins and Azalea Blossom donors, Barbara and Barry Katz. It was exciting seeing our characters come to life!

In the evening, our team enjoyed happy hour at Manchego restaurant in Brooklyn’s Ditmas Park region. We were thrilled to have our “Songs of SAFE through the arts” record producer Barb Morrison and her wife, Wild Heaven NYC’s writer/promotor Clayre Saxon, join us!

The board met with Margaret for a four hour board meeting and brunch at La Pain de Quotidian, one of our partners, in the Brooklyn Heights location. Among the important topics discussed is how Azalea Blossom and the SAFE through the arts program stays true to embracing and addressing diversity and inclusion in all of our programming during the current challenging times of our world. Overall the weekend was full of fun, great synergy, and inspiration. We are all blessed to be part of such a diverse, talented team and we hope you chose to be part of our mission!