Pictured above l-r: Allan Lengel (Deadline Detroit), Attorney Richard Bernstein, Tyson Gersh (Michigan Urban Farming Initiative), Molly Reeser (Camp Casey), Tammy Trudelle (Downriver Council for the Arts), Larry Olienick (Heart 2 Hart Detroit), Levi and Bassie Shemtov (The Friendship Circle).
Representatives from five non-profits from Metro Detroit gathered on a rainy Tuesday morning at the offices of the Sam Bernstein Law Firm in Farmington Hills to receive their awards and checks.
The five groups were chosen to participate in the Deadline Detroit Bernstein Service Awards. Readers voted on Facebook for the their favorite non-profit. The top vote getter was the Michigan Urban Farming Initiative.
The other organizations included: Downriver Council for the Arts; The Friendship Circle; Heart 2 Hart Detroit and Camp Casey.
Each organizations got 25 cents for each vote, which was cast in the month of March.
The winner got an extra $500. In the first round of the contest, readers nominated their favorite nonprofit and the Bernstein law firm and Deadline Detroit whittled the list down to five.
Attorney Mark Bernstein said at the breakfast that the project with Deadline Detroit was part of his law firm's way to express the work it does in a broader sense to help better the world.
He said the firm had just formed a "Culture Club," comprised of its employees, to work on more community projects.
The Detroit-based winner, the Michigan Urban Farming Initiative, organizes neighborhood projects to grow crops on formerly vacant land, says it is "using agriculture as a platform to promote education, sustainability and community — while simultaneously reducing socioeconomic disparity."
