By Anthony O’Reilly
Gold Coast Arts Center Executive Director Regina Gil said on Thursday that the center had met the challenge of philanthropist Harvey Kaylie to raise $30,000, which the Great Neck resident said he would match if met.
“I feel great,” Gil said. “I have to thank the community and I really have to give credit to my board. They did so much.”
The arts center’s fundraising total, she said, is currently at $30,750.25 with more money coming in.
“A little boy gave me a quarter,” she said.
Gil said the money raised by the arts center and Kaylie’s matching grant would be used to support the center’s education and outreach programs.
The programs, she said, had been supported by federal and corporate grants that are beginning to run out.
“We were in a position where we needed to be secure,” she said. “This plugs up a hole.”
Kaylie, a resident of Great Neck for nine years, said last month that he would match any donations made to the arts center by June 15 if the center could raise at least $30,000.
Kaylie said he came up with the idea after meeting with Gil at the Gold Coast International Film Festival in October.
“Regina told me they needed help so I said I’m going to jump in and help you,” Kaylie said in a May interview. “I fell that its a part of the responsibility of being a citizen of Great Neck that I come through.”
Kaylie said on Monday that he’s “excited” that the arts center was able to surpass the $30,000 mark.
“I was very happy,” he said.
Kaylie, founder and president of electronics company Mini-Circuits Inc., and his wife Gloria are the founders of the Harvey and Gloria Kaylie Foundation, which seeks to help underprivileged children receive a better education.
She said since the challenge was issued last month many residents began to send in donations ranging from $5 to $5,000.
Gil said a majority of the money came from smaller donations.
“A hundred dollars was the average,” she said.
Some donations, Gil said, were handed in by anonymous donors.
“One man wrote a check and just left and I didn’t even know his name,” she said.
Gil said the donations did not just come from Great Neck, where the arts center is located.
“There were donations from people in Roslyn, Port Washington, Manhasset, Queens,” she said. “This really translates into community.”
The money will be used to fund the center’s classroom initiatives, which includes lessons at the center and sending art teachers to school districts throughout the North Shore, Gil said.
