ANNUAL EVENTS

Spring Benefit
The Spring Benefit is a major fundraising event that supports sliding scale tuition at MCS.   The event is traditionally sponsored by The Board of Trustees and organized by the Development office and MCS parents. In the recent past, this event has been entitled Big Night Out! and has featured dinner, dancing, and a program honoring MCS alumni, long-term faculty, and mentors consistent with our mission. For 20 years before that, it was a Rent Party, a modern version of old-time rent parties held in Harlem during the ‘20s and ‘30s, when musicians jammed informally in people’s homes to help raise money for someone’s rent. Jazz musicians flocked to MCS to play at this lively and highly successful event.

Part of the Spring Benefit includes the presentation of the “Living the Dream” Mentor Award. Food and beverages are provided in the cost of tickets. Underwriters of the event often make it possible to offer a limited number of reduced price tickets to members of the MCS community.

Grandparents’ and Special Friends’ Day
Every other year Grandparents (or other important family members or close friends) are invited to spend a morning at MCS, which includes a welcome snack, a visit in their grandchild’s classroom, and a slide show of the Farm and talk by the Director.

Farm Festival
On the third Saturday in October, 96th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues turns into a wonderful fair. Sponsored by the Parents’ Association and organized by the 6-7s’ parents each year, the Farm Festival generally features a hay ride, children’s games, rides and activities, a haunted house, book sale, raffle, on-line auction, great food, farm produce and entertainment. The Festival, attended by the entire MCS community, including alumni, is open to the general public and is a major parent fundraiser that requires work and donations from all parents.

Book Fair
The Book Fair is scheduled on a Thursday and Friday in December and is an opportunity for families to shop for some good books and holiday gifts, at the same time benefiting the school. The Book Fair Committee consists of 6th grade parents and other interested parents. It contracts with a supplier to ensure an appropriate selection of books for nursery, elementary and junior high school ages with an emphasis on MCS’ expressed interest in multiculturalism, gender equity, and the natural environment. There are a range of classics and some fine new books, hardcover and paperback. The Committee sends home a flyer with students, who have an opportunity to come with their classes to shop.

Ezra Jack Keats Day
Ezra Jack Keats Day is a much loved tradition at MCS as it integrates and reflects the school’s core mission and values in numerous ways.  Each year students, parents, and faculty look forward to the opportunity to engage in a dialogue with an author whose literary themes are aligned with those of Ezra Jack Keats – a children’s book author and illustrator who crossed social boundaries by being the first American picture-book maker to give the black child a central place in children’s literature.  Click here to learn more about Ezra Jack Keats and the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation.