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Bed-Stuy Teachers Raise Funds to Throw Carnival for Students in Need

 Students at P.S. 23 in Bed-Stuy celebrate the holidays with the BrooklynKnight, the Nets' mascot. The school's staff is reaching out to the community for help in throwing a carnival for the kids.
Students at P.S. 23 in Bed-Stuy celebrate the holidays with the BrooklynKnight, the Nets' mascot. The school's staff is reaching out to the community for help in throwing a carnival for the kids.
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DNAinfo/Paul DeBenedetto

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — Faculty and administrators at a Bed-Stuy school serving children in need want to celebrate their students — and are reaching out to the community for help.

Staffers at P.S. 23, located at 545 Willoughby Ave., are raising funds to throw their annual kids carnival, a free outdoor event featuring rides and games funded almost entirely by donations.

"Our school is pretty much lacking money all around," said organizer and teacher Elizabeth Cortes. "And we have a huge percentage of our population who really don't get out much and experience things some of us take for granted."

P.S. 23 is populated in part by kids from local shelters, and teachers and administrators often have to deal with issues that extend beyond the classroom, Principal Celina Napolitano told DNAinfo New York in January.

Bed-Stuy also has one of highest child poverty rates in the city, according to the Citizens' Committee for Children.

The event will be a reward for the students' hard work over the year, Napolitano said.

"Anything to have fun for the children," she said. "Whatever we do is for the children and for their future, [so] that they have a sense of the worth."

The staff set up a crowdfunding website to raise $4,000, and hopes to raise a total of $5,000 between online donations and an April 25 fundraising event at Camp Friendship, 339 8th St. in Park Slope.

Attendees are asked to donate $20 to the event, which nets them five raffle tickets and a chance to win specialty gift baskets donated by P.S. 23 teachers, parents and administrators. Camp Friendship donated the space for the event, organizers said.

"It's an awesome way to bring our kids and their parents and the rest of the community together," Cortes said. "It builds this bond, because they see that we care, even outside of school."

P.S. 23's fundraiser is April 25, 7 p.m. until midnight. It is open to the public. To donate online, visit the school's GoFundMe page.