New Bedford's NorthStar Learning Centers is trading its usual classrooms and case files for flapper dresses and poker chips this Friday, hosting a 1920s-themed Great Gatsby Casino Night at Kilburn Mill to raise money for the community programs it runs across the city. The event is planned for 8 p.m. on November 13 and carries a $125 ticket price that organizers say funds everything from early education to youth violence-prevention work.
What a $125 Ticket Buys
According to WBSM, that ticket price covers a free drink, food, dessert, and $1,000 worth of gaming chips for the night's casino-style games. The evening is also set to include live music and a silent auction, with one standout prize: a trip to Italy. Victoria Wolfe, a communications consultant for NorthStar, said all of the proceeds will go directly to programs that serve people in the community, according to the outlet's report.
Tickets were listed as available through northstarlc.org or by calling (508) 250-2876 at the time of the report. The station's report frames the casino night less as a one-off party than as a fundraising engine for an organization that says it reaches more than 2,000 individuals, from birth to adulthood, each year.
Decades of Work Behind the Event
NorthStar's roots trace back to the 1970s, when it began as United Front Daycare, per the same account from WBSM. The organization now provides early education, mental health services, and works with the Department of Children and Families to help unify families — work that, according to gnbya.org, falls under a Family Actualization Support & Empowerment program offering case management, mentoring, and advocacy to DCF-involved families aimed at preventing out-of-home placements and keeping families together.
The nonprofit also runs violence intervention and prevention programs for young adults up to age 24, and gnbya.org describes the shared mission across its three violence-prevention initiatives as reducing youth violence and minimizing recidivism at the community level. One of those efforts, New Bedford Shannon, serves moderate- and high-risk youth ages 10 to 24, per the same source.
New Building, New Partnerships
On the early education side, NorthStar finished building a new learning academy at 10 Hyacinth Street in New Bedford two years before WBSM's report. The organization has also partnered with the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra on a program teaching children as young as 3 and 4 years old to play string instruments, including the violin, the article notes.
NorthStar operates two nationally accredited child development centers offering full-day, year-round early education and care for children from one month old up until they start kindergarten, according to gnbya.org, which lists the organization's offices at 53 Linden Street in New Bedford with Maria A. Rosario serving as executive director. Wolfe, who appeared on Townsquare Sunday to discuss the fundraiser, said NorthStar offers services for children, young adults seeking a fresh start, and families pursuing reunification.
