IAC steps up with citywide community service day

Left: A volunteer from the Internet media company IAC looked on as children from the Hudson Guild’s summer camp participated in a sack race last Thursday as part of IAC’s 2007 community service day. Right: Ilene Berkowitz, a benefits manager for IAC’s human resources department, offered free ice-cream sandwiches to seniors having lunch at the Hudson Guild’s Fulton Center as part of IAC’s community service day.

By Jefferson Siegel

“With all the new housing and office development in Chelsea, people often lose sight that it’s a community that needs giving back.” This sentiment was offered by Chelsea resident Josh Sussman, 32, the general counsel of programming at IAC, a Chelsea-based Internet media conglomerate.

Sussman and 40 colleagues had just held a carnival for local children at the Hudson Guild’s Summer Camp. They were part of a group of 200 from IAC who spent last Thursday participating in a day of community service.

“We get so caught up at work that, often times, we don’t stop and take a look around. This puts things in perspective,” Sussman added as his group prepared to start the afternoon portion of the carnival. Local children paraded onto the Chelsea ball fields on West 28th Street for sack races, T-shirt tye-dying, and jump-rope competitions.

Ten blocks south, another 40 IAC volunteers were at the Hudson Guild’s Fulton Center. Some tended to the interior garden as others served ice cream to and played bingo with the local seniors.

Cheryl Kamen, director of adult services at the community center, stood on a garden path watching as the volunteers did weeding, planting and mulching.

“The participants and staff look forward to their coming each year,” Kamen said as several volunteers dug holes for plantings. “It will be so much more pleasant of an area for the participants to visit,” she added as the garden took on a greener hue.

Other activities included volunteers taking a Circle Line boat tour to the Statue of Liberty with autistic adults who are part of AMAC’s (Chelsea’s Association for Metro Area Autistic Children) day habilitation program, as well as serving as English conversation partners for immigrants on their first visit to the Empire State Building.