history

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The leadership team of Surgance birthed and directed a popular, respected and effective community transformation initiative in New York City called Paint the Town—a collaborative program involving the city government, the Department of Education (including superintendents, principals, teachers); big business such as Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, the Citi Group, Washington Mutual, Bloomingdale’s, the Staubach Company, and Benjamin Moore Paints; churches and other religious organizations like World Vision; PTA’s and community interest groups plus higher education systems such as Fordham University and NYU to transform the community through painting inner-city schools as well as providing sports camps and block parties in under-served neighborhoods.

All told, more than 15,000 students benefited as greater than 1.3 million square feet of walls in some of the country’s oldest school buildings were freshly painted and renovated by thousands of volunteers from across the nation.

Recognized by both the NYC Mayor’s Office and the Borough of the Bronx President’s Office, Paint the Town existed under the umbrella of New Hope New York (NHNY), the North American Mission Board’s Strategic Focus City initiative for Greater New York.  During the three years of the NHNY focus (2004-2006), more than 30,000 volunteers took part in community transformational activities in the city.