The Community of Unity [2] recently hosted their 15th Annual Song Celebration and Fundraiser [3] where Marisa and Giovanni Colavita [4] were awarded as the SONG Winners of the year. All the guests enjoyed a night filled with good music, good food, and good company all while supporting the dynamic programming that Community of Unity provides which empowers young people to find their unique purpose and potential. i-Italy had the special opportunity to speak with the founder of this special organization, Eric Komoroff, and one of the winners of the night, Marisa Colavita.

The History of Community of Unity

Eric Komoroff, Founder and Executive Director of Community of Unity, had been a New York educator since 1988 before starting his own nonprofit organization 17 years ago. He told i-Italy that he “always felt like too many young people don’t embrace the idea of having a unique potential, something that is special about them that they need to pursue in their lives that makes life worth living so we created this organization to hopefully awaken in them a sense that there is a future, that everyone has a song and we have to learn our song and then we have to share our song.”

Komoroff went on to explain the meaning behind the concept: "the song to us is that thing inside of you that you’re born with, that makes you, you. It’s your best self, it’s your potential, it’s your purpose, it’s your vibration, your essence and we all have it and a life is really about learning our song and then sharing our song."

The Community of Unity strongly believes that humans beings do the best work when the work is done together. The founder continued to say that, "as a community we share our feelings, we work hard, we share our challenges and through that experience, we grow. For many of our kids, they feel very alone in life and our programs create communities which are kind of like families in which they feel safe, in which they can take risks and hopefully make the decision that they want to work hard and grow and have a good life.”

Partnership with Colavita

Marisa Colavita, from America’s most trusted family brand for fine Italian gourmet products, told i-Italy about how her and her husband’s partnership with Community of Unity began. After visiting the school and meeting the children, she said that “it was a beautiful moment but also a very difficult one because I realized that these kids in front of me had problems much bigger than themselves and much bigger than me. I realized I didn’t have the proper skills or preparation it takes to work with children who have serious problems at home. However, I still wanted to support the organization and so it came quite naturally for Giovanni and I to provide financially in order to help them.”

She added, “the thing that struck me most about this organization is the immediate and direct impact it has on the lives of children. The main reason we accepted this SONG award is because we want to sensitize others to the cause.” 

When asked about his relationship with Colavita, Komoroff responded that “it’s the 15th year we’ve had this event and we always honor people who have shared their song with us so this year Marisa and Giovanni Colavita have shared so much with us, they’ve really been incredibly generous in providing all of our programs with food, they pay for all of the food that we serve out kids which means all of our kids get to eat healthy food and high quality food and it’s been just the greatest experience working with them.”

For more information on how you can donate to the wonderful Community of Unity, visit their website at: http://communityofunity.org/ [2]