On a snowy evening in early March, ISB parents, staff members, Trustees, and friends gathered at The Bell House to celebrate at the 10th Annual Benefit. ISB parents lent their talents to the event as well: DJ Angel Nevarez kept everyone dancing throughout the night, while Chef Danforth Houle treated guests to his delicious food once again. Their wonderful support helped make the event a success!

Before Parents Association Vice President and Benefit emcee Michele Clarke-Ceres called for the first opening bid in the live auction, Board of Trustees Vice President Nancy Woodruff and Secretary Mónica Burgos, along with Board President Isabelle Jouanneau-Fertig,  honored ISB’s founders and founding families with kind words of thanks, beautiful custom clocks, and champagne. ISB Head of School and Co-Founder Rebecca Skinner shared the some heartfelt words as well:

“I want to thank you so much for honoring me and all of those involved with the founding of the school in this special way. It is such a pleasure to be here tonight with this wonderful group of founders and founding families and to see the village that came together to create our wonderful school. I am so grateful for your commitment to ISB and your friendship and support… The journey to this point has been complete with ups and downs, cheers and tears. Through it all, we have stayed focused on the core values that brought us together ten years ago (and earlier, for some of us) – a commitment to language immersion, holistic and international education, diversity, and community. And while we have had no doubt as to the uniqueness and quality of the education our students are receiving at ISB, it has certainly been a wonderful validation to see the response of our public, independent, and parochial high schools during this, our first high school placement season… Beyond the news of high school acceptances, what makes me the most proud and excited is what lies ahead in the next 10 years for ISB. I look forward to watching our graduates continue to grow and to use the skills they have acquired at ISB, as well as to understand the paths that they take because of the foundation they received at ISB. I look forward to seeing our N-8 program grow even more – in depth and breath – and I look forward to seeing the impact that ISB will have on the Brooklyn and NYC community in the years ahead as we continue to lead the conversation around language immersion and international education. I hope that the history that we have created in these first ten years will serve as a model for how we continue to grow and challenge ourselves, to continue to be risk takers.”

After some lively bidding, the auction concluded and guests danced to the rockabilly bluegrass music of The Defibulators before bundling up to go back out into the snowy night.

We would like to extend a very special thank you to Trustees Isabelle Jouanneau-Fertig, Nancy Woodruff, and Mónica Burgos for organizing the special Founders’ Celebration, as well as to ISB parents Stephanie Bayard, Tiziana Brazzioli, Craig Carson, Michele Clarke-Ceres, Gretchen Drobnyk, Sebastien Grouard, Greg Gunn, Danforth Houle, Havona Madama, Erika Kirkland-Pizzo, Benjamin Masse, Angel Nevarez, Kim Barrington Narisetti, Amrita Prabhakar Barth, the Class Parents, and all of the other parent volunteers who made this event possible! We are very grateful for the support of our benefit sponsors, in situ design, atelier architecture 64, and HomeStories.