‘Real Men Cook’ in Harlem

Event

Real Men Cook® is the nation’s premier urban Father’s Day charity event and it will once again take place in New York City on Father’s Day, June 20, 2010.Every year, this “party with a purpose” is a fun filled food tasting celebration of families, fatherhood, community and REAL MEN not to be missed! Between the food, entertainment, children’s activities, health screenings and door prizes, this family-friendly fund raising event has something to offer everyone. For the mere price of admission, a ticket holder is entitled to participate in the food sampling and all other activities without further obligation to purchase anything.

In its 21^st year Real Men Cook has become a tradition as the largest and longest-running national Father’s Day celebration of its kind. It is an annual event that honors fathers and the positive accomplishments of men in the community, past and present. It also provides a broad look at “real men” even beyond fathers to coaches, teachers and others with or without children, who care.

The biggest key to this event are the Men who give up being pampered on Father’s Day and show themselves as examples or REAL MEN by cooking for the community. These Men and the many Father’s like them are the true backbone of this event.

Presented simultaneously in multiple cities by Real Men Charities, a 501c3 organization, the Chicago-originated event has evolved to include 15 cities around the country: Atlanta, Baltimore, Benton Harbor, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Greenville/Spartanburg, SC, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, St. Louis and Washington, DC. Real Men Cook partners with local non-profits who work to earn proceeds from event ticket sales in each city where the event is held. To date, more than $1 million has been raised for various charities through ticket sale proceeds and donations. Real Men Charities is the national charity partner in each event city. The Charity Beneficiary in NYC is New York City Mission Society.

The activities at this year’s Real Men Cook – NY event include:

A Health & Wellness Pavilion sponsored by Lilly that includes healthy cooking demonstrations and health testing courtesy of Harlem Hospital for Blood Pressure, Cholesterol, Glucose and Prostate Cancer.

Live entertainment featuring Award Winning Independent Soul Band Marcell & The Truth and many more fantastic artists.

About NYC Mission Society

For nearly 200 years, New York City Mission Society has been a force for positive change in the lives of New Yorkers in need.

In 1812, New York City Mission Society (then called The New York Religious Tract Society) was formed in an effort to inspire hope in the masses that flooded the City. At the time, the organization’s mission was to provide Christian tracts to every New Yorker willing to receive them.

Working in low-income communities, Mission Society became intimately acquainted with the face of poverty and suffering. In response, it provided relief in the form of food, clothing, schooling, and access to health care to people in need. Its early efforts to attend to the physical and material needs of the poor led to the development of the Association for Improving the Conditions of the Poor (AICP), a “spin-off” organization that ultimately evolved into today’s Community Service Society, one of NY’s prominent human service providers.

In the second half of the 1800′s, Mission Society established its reputation as an innovator in the human services field. It created ward libraries that were a forerunner to New York City’s public library system in the 1850′s. Soon thereafter, it started financing trips to the countryside for the urban poor that provided a model for the Fresh Air Fund.

The organization initiated New York City’s first sleep away camp (Camp Minisink) for African-American children in 1929. By the 1950′s, the Mission Society’s Harlem Unit had also developed several innovative leadership training programs, including the Tapawingo Honor Society, the Order of the Feather Fraternity, and the Cadet Corps. The Cadet Corps had a particularly widespread appeal, teaching thousands of young people marching techniques, team work, and discipline over the course of four decades. Family-based camping programs established in the 1950′s provided respite to thousands of people. Taken together, Mission Society’s services in the 1900′s were a lifeline to generations of New Yorkers, producing New York City’s first black school principal, its first black district superintendent, its first black Deputy Police Commissioner, and countless other productive citizens.

Today, New York City Mission Society continues its rich legacy of service to communities of long-standing need by helping children and families to learn, achieve and succeed.  The organization provides cutting-edge programs that focus on education, financial literacy, personal growth and development, prevention, and arts and recreation.  Our school-based and community programs touch the lives of 10,000 children and families a year in Central Harlem, the Bronx and Brooklyn. These programs are conducted in ten New York City schools and the Minisink Townhouse, a thriving community center in the heart of Harlem.