May 9, 2013 - Bohemia, NY – On Tuesday, May 7, 2013, over 250 members of the Long Island nonprofit community and those who support it converged at the Crest Hollow Country Club for the inaugural Long Island Imagine Awards, Long Island’s first award program dedicated to the nonprofit sector.   The Imagine Awards honored twenty of Long Island’s most effective nonprofit organizations, and awarded $5,000 in cash prizes to each of 5 winning organizations.

Wyandanch Homes and Property Development Corporation won The Claire Friedlander Family Foundation Rising Star Award; Long Island Crisis Center won The Frank G. Zarb School of Business at Hofstra University Innovation Award; The United Cerebral Palsy Association of Nassau County Inc. won the Capital One Bank Social Entrepreneurship Award; The Center for Science Teaching and Learning won the Nixon Peabody, LLP Leadership Excellence Award; and Island Harvest won the Cerini & Associates, LLP Social Impact Award.  Furthermore, a video was produced and provided to each of the twenty finalists to use in their promotional efforts.

Ken Cerini, Managing Partner of the Bohemia based accounting firm Cerini & Associates who launched the event, stated: “The inaugural Imagine Awards was a tremendous success. It gave us an opportunity to spotlight those organizations who exhibit Leadership, Innovation, Entrepreneurism, and Impact here on Long Island.  We felt that it is about time that the nonprofit sector was honored for the tremendous work it does and the impact it has on everyone who lives and plays here on Long Island.”

Images from the event are available on the Imagine Awards Facebook page (http://on.fb.me/1019LPF) and planning for next year’s Imagine Awards will be starting in the coming weeks.

###