Lenox Hill Neighborhood House Spring Gala Honors UES Superstars

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — For almost 130 years, the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House has been serving the neighborhood with social services, free classes, child care, preschool, supportive housing and the only homeless shelter on the Upper East Side.

And in more recent years, the formidable settlement house has hosted a spring gala fundraiser, with iconic creative tables, each uniquely designed by both local and national artists, for an evening celebrating honoring the work of volunteers and everyone who helps the Neighborhood House reach 16,000 New Yorkers each year.

This year's spring gala at Cipriani 42nd Street honored two volunteers with their Elizabeth Rohatyn Award for Community Service: Dr. Soyoun Im, the acting chief of medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital who leads a health clinic at the Women's Mental Health Shelter inside the Park Avenue Armory, and Natasha Pickowicz, a renowned pastry Chef who programs and leads cooking workshops at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House.

Im began working with the Neighborhood House just weeks before the pandemic hit in early 2020. Suddenly her work running a health clinic for the roughly 40 residents — the shelter is still operating at about half of its 80-bed capacity — living in the Upper East Side's only homeless shelter took on new importance.

"There was so much fear then," Im said, "a lot of questions and a lot of unknowns. I think it was really reassuring for them — and for me — to know that their needs were being met and that they were so appreciative of us being there."

"It was so impactful for the clinic and the residents at the shelter — for people to know that we were just going to be there no matter what," she added.

The shelter residents are all homeless women with mental health diagnosis who have been assessed by the Department of Homeless Services for 30 days prior to their Upper East Side transfer. And on Thursdays, they're welcome to walk into Dr. Im's health clinic for free checkups and referrals.

It's not just the practice of medical care, but of seeing residents transform their lives while at the shelter that Im said has made an impact on her.

"I found it has been really incredibly rewarding to say: 'Hey, I was there to see you through to achieve your goal,'" she told Patch. "We were able to prove that they were ready to basically become more independent in their lives."

One memorable patient of Im's early on — described as a glammed-up grandmother — who was living in the shelter turned out to have some heart issues that needed immediate attention.

"Our team was actually able to expedite that care and provided care at Lenox Hill Hospital, got all her heart troubles, basically taken care of and now she has moved out of the shelter into her own housing," Im said. "There are so many stories like that."

Pickowicz — who also just released a new cookbook — has worked with the Neighborhood Housefor years — a relationship formed after a chance discovery in 2017 as she walked down East 70th Street after her day of work as the pastry chef at Flora Bar inside the former Met Breuer on Madison Avenue.

"I just sent a cold email," said Pickowicz, an avid volunteer who frequently looks for opportunities to connect with and contribute to neighborhoods she works in.

"What are in these neighborhoods," she said, "besides the fancy boutiques, and the hotels and the shopping? I always know there is more to these neighborhoods than what I could see."

Since then, she's helped lead countless cooking classes, events and more at both the Teaching Kitchen at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House — a training and technical assistance program that has helped over 500 nonprofit staff convert their food services to better, healthier farm-to-institution meals — and the older adult services program, where she gets to work hands-on in intimate classes.

Like this past Lunar New Year, where Pickowicz got to lead a class on dumplings.

"That was a really powerful moment for me because I'm Chinese," Pickowicz said. "I was able to share with them traditions I learned through my mom who was an immigrant."

As the class went on, more people came over to join the initial 20 or so, "because everyone wanted to participate," Pickowicz said, with everyone making dumplings, then frying and eating them together, sharing memories and stories about New York City, food and cooking.

Pickowicz told the crowd at the gala that “working with Lenox Hill Neighborhood House gives my work meaning. It fills me with joy, and it really reaffirms my commitment to my community," and she told Patch that anyone interested in volunteering should just try it out.

"Volunteering is kind of an act of communal love, and being able to tap into a volunteering role is a way to sort of access joy in your community that goes beyond like your ego or your self interest — it's a very powerful thing," Pickowicz said. "It feeds you in this way that I think nothing else can."