Friends of Fresh and Green Academy will be hosting its Third Annual Poker/Casino Night Fundraiser on September 12th, 2011. This year promises to be our most spectacular event yet.

Play will be for prizes such as Mets VIP seats and parking, year long gym memeberships, helicopter rides, Broadway tickets, wellness services, dinners and more!

We have professional dealers & tables.

Not a pro? No worries, beginner tables and instruction are available and remember it is for charity and meant to be fun!

Bring your friends!

Register early and receive $2,500.00 in chips, 3 hours premium open bar, and 3 hours of passed hors d'oeuvres!

$180.00 Early registration or $200.00 after August 20th.

Don't want to play? For $75.00, receive open bar and hors d'oeuvres while helping the children of Fresh and Green Academy!

Friends of Fresh and Green Academy, a non-profit corporation, is exempt from federal income taxes under Section 501(C)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, therefore your donation is tax-deductible to the full extent provided by law.

Friends of Fresh and Green Academy was created to ensure the continuation and success of Fresh and Green Academy, a school for impoverished children in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Our mission is to provide the Academy's students with daily meals, a well-rounded education and access to adequate medical care under the guidance of the Academy's director and founder, Muday Mitiku. Friends of Fresh and Green also supports the "Mothers Cooperative," an on-site program created to provide personal empowerment for the students' mothers by allowing them to earn their own money, learn new skills and provide for their families' future.

Africa’s second poorest country, Ethiopia, offers free education to its citizens, but meals are not provided. In the poverty-stricken Keteme neighborhood of Addis Ababa, youngsters often spend their days begging on the streets, trying to earn enough money to feed their entire family.

Fresh and Green Academy was founded by local teacher Muday Mitiku in 2000. Originally opened as a for-profit endeavor, Muday could not bear the thought of children going hungry and began to accept the neighborhood beggars and street urchins. Soon the parents of the paying children took their children out of the school. It seemed as if the entire enterprise would be forced to close.

In 2008, Trish Hack-Rubinstein and two others visited the school and saw the need for ongoing funding and thus created, Friends of Fresh and Green Academy Inc., whose sole mission is to keep the school going. At present there are 111 students, ages three through 3rd grade.

Through our sponsorship program we provide teachers, classrooms, supplies, clothing, medical care and perhaps most importantly, three meals a day. Without the nutritional component, these children would be forced to go back to a life of begging, and the ones who are HIV positive would be ineligible for their medication. We help support their families through our Mothers’ Cooperative. The student’s mothers make jewelry and other crafts that we then sell in the United States.