{"id":251085,"date":"2026-06-01T17:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T17:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/251085\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T17:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T17:30:11","slug":"education-fundraiser-honored-for-work-with-students-qns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/251085\/","title":{"rendered":"Education fundraiser honored for work with students \u2013 QNS"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Notaro works with students in Catholic schools in Brooklyn and Queens. He\u2019s not a teacher but his focus is all about student success. For his efforts raising funds for families to afford the tuition at those academies, Notaro was a co-honoree at the fifth annual gala dinner for the Brooklyn Diocesan Missionary House of Formation Redemptoris Mater<\/a>, held on Sunday, May 31, at Terrace On The Park<\/a> in Corona<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Notaro is the executive director of the Diocese of Brooklyn\u2019s Catholic Foundation and Futures in Education organizations.\n<\/p>\n

More than 550 people attended the Sunday evening event, which was the largest turnout the dinner has had in its five years.
\n\"\"<\/a>Attendees at the Brooklyn Diocesan Missionary House of Formation Redemptoris Mater gala dinner. Photo by Michael Rizzo\n<\/p>\n

The Queens Village<\/a> seminary prepares young men for missionary work as priests. Also honored was Msgr. Joseph Grimaldi, the Vicar General of the diocese, who assists Bishop Robert J. Brennan in administrative and pastoral governance duties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are 4,000 students who are sitting in seats in the Catholic schools that they want to go to because of the donors who contribute to our organizations,\u201d Notaro said in an interview before receiving his award, calling those kinds of results the reason \u201cwhy I get up in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Honoree John Notaro (left) speaks with well-wishers at the Brooklyn Diocesan Missionary House of Formation Redemptoris Mater gala dinner. Photo by Michael Rizzo<\/p>\n

Fr. Julio C\u00e9sar S\u00e1nchez, the seminary\u2019s rector, explained in an interview as the event was setting up why Notaro was honored.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Notaro is someone who, for many years, has become an instrument in our society, to show the grace of God, to help our young Catholics to find the truth in their discipline, in their academics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting donations to help with scholarships and resources that Catholic schools and parishes need is the challenge Notaro said he faces every day.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re forming citizens for this world. We\u2019re forming young people who are understanding the importance of service, and what it means to serve, to be a part of a community,\u201d Notaro said in defending the need for Catholic schools, \u201cand what makes us stand out is that there is a faith component that goes above and beyond just teaching the academics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>John Notaro speaks to attendees at the Brooklyn Diocesan Missionary House of Formation Redemptoris Mater gala dinner. Photo by Michael Rizzo<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing connected to a church that is there to help people, to give people community, to give people peace. It\u2019s something that people so easily connect with,\u201d he said in describing why donors make their contributions.<\/p>\n

The 50-year-old Middle Village<\/a> resident was joined at the event by his wife, Ludmila, and their three children, Nicholas, Benjamin and Isabella. Notaro previously worked at IBM in global finance before beginning his current job in 2010.<\/p>\n

Gregory Haufe, a donor to Futures in Education<\/a> and former chair of the St. Matthias Catholic Academy in Ridgewood, which closed in 2024<\/a>, purchased a $200 ticket for the event. The 35-year-old, who is a vice president of cybersecurity with a major U.S. retail firm, said his work with Notaro fostered hope among residents in the parish.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of them were immigrants or first generation who wanted to give their children a better education than they received,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was through Futures in Education that they were able to receive tuition assistance that gave them the leg up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haufe said continuing that financial support would help in recruiting families to Catholic schools to keep them open.\n<\/p>\n

In presenting Notaro the seminary\u2019s Maria Porta Caeli award, which is Latin for \u201cMary the Door to Heaven,\u201d referring to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, Fr. Miguel \u00c1ngel Cervantes, the seminary\u2019s vice rector, said that Notaro\u2019s work raises $20 million a year for
his organizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI receive this honor tonight with gratitude and with humility,\u201d Notaro said in remarks to the guests. \u201cI ask you all to keep in mind the future of this church is not something to be feared, it is something to be formed, and tonight we\u2019ve seen it in action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo by Michael Rizzo<\/p>\n

Then Notaro drew applause by raising his young daughter Isabella to the microphone, who spoke the final words of his speech with an emphatic \u201cthank you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Notaro works with students in Catholic schools in Brooklyn and Queens. He\u2019s not a teacher but his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,97948,100,99,97949,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-251085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-diocesan-missionary-house-of-formation-redemptoris-mater","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-john-notaro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}