A string quartet performs a holiday concert in the newly
renovated lobby of 112 West 34th Street. Weekly concerts
took place at every W&H property throughout the holiday
season.

As in years past, W&H's holiday season was filled with community activities. In November, we held our portfolio-wide semi-annual Girl Scouts Corporate Cookie Connection. Proceeds from these sales support educational and cultural programs for Girl Scouts in New York City, who also organize shipments of "Gifts of Caring" cookie boxes for military personnel overseas.

Also in keeping with tradition, we sponsored annual toy drives in conjunction with the Robin Hood Foundation, which works to eradicate poverty by funding community-based programs. The importance of such programs to our city is clear: 34,000 people sleep in New York City shelters each night, and nearly half of them are children. In addition, 60 percent of boys in New York City don't graduate high school, and 50 percent of the youths who leave foster care end up homeless or in jail.

Many of our tenants enthusiastically participated in each building's toy drive. Their donations went directly to the following organizations:

• SCO Family of Services (Empire State Building and 501 Seventh Avenue). SCO is one of the largest multi-service nonprofit agencies in New York, delivering programs that provide services for young mothers and their children, homeless families, and children with developmental disabilities.

• Iris House (250 West 57th Street). Iris House provides services for women, men and their families who are infected or affected by the HIV/AIDS virus.

• The Family Center (112 West 34th Street). The Family Center works to create a more secure present and future for children whose parents have a life-threatening illness by providing comprehensive legal and social services, education and research.

• Women in Need (The Lincoln Building). Women In Need, Inc. services homeless and disadvantaged families through a comprehensive program that includes housing, job training and placement, domestic violence prevention, substance abuse treatment, and HIV/AIDS prevention and education. WIN's children's services include child care, after school programs and Camp WIN, a summer day camp for children living in WIN's shelters.

• Citizens Advice Bureau (1333 Broadway and 1350 Broadway). CAB is a human service organization with a wide range of services, including an after-school program to reduce teen pregnancy, a job-training program, a program to promote college attendance by disconnected youth, and an early-childhood center.

• Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Services (1359 Broadway and 1400 Broadway). LSA is a non-profit organization that has worked with the families of East Harlem for nearly 50 years, helping them address the many dimensions of family health - physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual - and offers a wide range of health care and social services, education, advocacy and crisis counseling to hundreds of families in the community.

We thank all of the tenants who, by donating toys to one of the above causes, helped make our city a better place. Together, we can continue to make a difference.