About Us
Emre’s name fit him. Roughly translated from Turkish, Emre means “smitten” or “in love”. Perhaps it was newly acquired parental intuition that led us to choose this name for our first born son, the name that describes not only our feelings for him, but also his relationship with his world. Right until the moment on September 13, 2007 when a car accident snatched him from us, Emre was thoughtful, sometimes timid, always loving, playful, funny and fully engaged, and thoroughly smitten, by his world. The Emre Fund is a way to maintain the love that grew out of Emre’s short life.
Emre was a happy baby who explored his world with enthusiasm, curiosity and a startling focus. As a toddler, his books, Legos and lining up streams of toy animals, nose to tail, from biggest to smallest, or by color and type, with a name for each of them and a story about where they were going, became his favorite games. Although Emre was a homebody who could spend a morning with a single favorite book, his idea of a perfect day was dashing through the cold sprinkler, swimming like a frog in the ocean, running the paths at Bronx Zoo or greeting each dinosaur by name at the Museum of Natural History. By four and a half, he had mastered both Turkish and English, was learning to swim, chosen a best friend, was trying to read, and embraced those he loved, especially his baby brother, with a sincerity that changed the texture of the world around us, made it a richer and more colorful. Life with Emre was full of promise and joy.
Each year on Emre’s birthday (February 18), The Emre Fund selects a cause and makes a donation. In some way, each donation allows children who would not otherwise be able to enjoy something that Emre loved. Past recipients include:
The Museum of Natural History. An entire semester of the after school Science and Nature Program was provided for children living in public housing who attend the Goddard Children’s Center (2008).
Central Park Conservancy. A bench overlooking The Pool (103rd street and Central Park West) will be maintained for years to come. (2008)
The Bronx Zoo. The Education Department sponsored all of the preschool students in the Harlem Children’s Zone for a day, which included a class and visits with the animals. Additionally, funding was provided to the Zoo Education Department to support it’s involvement with The Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation, a Bronx public middle school. (2009)
The Harlem Children’s Zone. In addition to sponsoring the Harlem Gems trip to the Bronx Zoo, The Emre Fund has run a Holiday Toy Drive for children in the Booker T. Washington Beacon Program. (2008, 2009)
United Aid Foundation Earthquake Relief in Haiti. The Emre Fund hand delivered toys to children victims of the 2010 earthquake. In collaboration with the UAF, Levent traveled to several tent cities and a makeshift school on the outskirts of Port Au Prince to deliver 95 soccer balls with pumps, 375 art packs, which included a pad of paper and pack of crayons and 300 animal motif hand puppets. Additional funding was provided to support future UAF work in Haiti. See http://www.unitedaidfoundation.org/fieldupdates/field.html for more information.