Meet your neighbor: Q & A with Evelyn Kormanik, founder of Staten Island Giving Circle
Updated Mar 17, 2021;
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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. In January 2008, Evelyn Kormanik, an Advance Woman of Achievement, and her husband, Mike Kormanik, invited 24 neighbors, tennis and church friends together for “cake and coffee” and discussed ways to help the community better by assisting underserved children, seniors, military and the homeless.
Evelyn had read a 2007 “Family Circle” article describing a ‘giving circle,’ and wanted to create a local ‘giving circle.’ And thus, the Staten Island Giving Circle (SIGC) was born.
Fast forward to 2021, SIGC now boasts over 1,000 volunteer members. The group quickly outgrew the Kormanik house as a meeting place, and through the generosity of John and Ceil Scalia, has met at the Old Bermuda Inn for a number of years when in-person meetings were viable.