Long Island
The Nicole Schiffman Foundation
Cheryl Schiffman | website | contact@nicoleschiffmanfoundation.org
Three years ago this month, Carol Kestenbaum from Bellmore celebrated her 20th birthday with friends at Arizona State University, including her best friend from home, Nicole Schiffman, visiting to celebrate with Carol for the weekend. That same night, Carol and Nicole were murdered by Joshua Mendel, an ex-boyfriend of Carol's friend. He waited in a darkened stairwell for the girls to come home from their night of celebrating and shot them to death, then turned the gun on himself and committed suicide. Through their grief, the Kestenbaum and Schiffman families launched The Carol Kestenbaum Foundation and The Nicole Schiffman Foundation, in memory of their daughters, who never had a chance to live to accomplish all of what they were meant to do.
The Carol Kestenbaum Foundation strives to help young people build strong self esteem and self worth, thereby empowering them to make positive choices in order to create safe, healthy, meaningful and fulfilling lives for themselves and the world around them.
The Nicole Schiffman Foundation has been created with a mission to reach out to troubled youth in today's society and communicate a message of non-violence. The support system of family and friends for a young adult is of the utmost importance but there are many who are not fortunate enough to have either. The Nicole Schiffman Foundation aims to make available the help and guidance troubled youths need to avoid turning their personal crises into suicide or violence.
Both foundations strive to raise money to contribute to organizations that empower and grow self-esteem and educate people about suicide and prevention, the main reasons that Carol and Nicole are not alive today.
Carol's and Nicole's Foundations raise funds for various programs including the Long Island Crisis Center, another non-profit organization located in Bellmore that provides free, non-judgmental, high quality, accessible and confidential services to Long Islanders in crisis. Through their fundraising efforts for the Long Island Crisis Center, both foundations have been instrumental in Community Education programs that go into Nassau County high schools to educate students on suicide and prevention. During 2010, the foundations have enabled the Long Island Crisis Center to reach students in approximately 20 high schools with this program. The Carol Kestenbaum Foundation also has donated funds to assist the LICC with their suicide hotline, the only 24/7 support of its kind on Long Island, while The Nicole Schiffman Foundation has partnered with the Crisis Center on the Look Closer Initiative, utilizing videos and social media technology to urge teens to "look closer" at their friends, recognize signs of trouble and support them in getting the help that they need.
Carol's Foundation donates to Project Morry, a program that makes a multi-year commitment to bring inner-city children to sleepaway camp for the summer. These children are children who would never otherwise have this experience, and they benefit from a network of support, increase social skills and positive core values, enhance self-esteem and increase their sense of personal responsibility. 80% of children that participate in Project Morry go on to college or university. Carol's Circle was founded as a part of Project Morry to give young girls an opportunity to share their experiences in small groups through discussion, projects and games that explore issues of self-worth. Topics of discussion include conflict management, peer pressure and media images and encourage an open exchange of ideas and issues.
Nicole's Foundation works with LOVE (Leave Out Violence), a program that works with inner city children who have witnessed and lived with violence in any form, to stop this destructive cycle in their lives. In August 2009, The Nicole Schiffman Foundation assisted LOVE in securing a new location for its youth outreach initiatives. The new center officially named, The Nicole Schiffman Center for LOVE Youth, is an expanded space that affords LOVE the opportunity to provide guidance to additional teenagers in need. The Center is conveniently located in midtown Manhattan and shares a space with the non-profit organization, the Anti-Violence Project, offering LOVE a wealth of additional resources.
Each foundation also works to fundraise for other organizations that stand for different qualities of each of their daughters, proving that even through this horrible tragedy, there is good being done on earth.
The Carol Kestenbaum Foundation and The Nicole Schiffman Foundation are always looking for good volunteers. Are you good at writing? Have great computer skills? Whatever your talent or however you wish to help, contact the foundations and let them know.
You can also visit their websites to make cash donations via Paypal.
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