Brooklyn's Progress
December 2003

By the Office of the Borough President

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and Best of Brooklyn Inc. held the first ever How Sweet It Is!  Sweet Potato Pie Scholarship Contest.  The house of worship or community group whose member baked the best All-American sweet potato pie in Brooklyn won scholarship money for its group to distribute.  Forty nine Brooklyn groups sent representatives.  Each representative brought two of his or her own, freshly baked sweet potato pies and two copies of the recipe to the borough-wide competition at Brooklyn Borough Hall. 

Brooklyn Chamber Member Mary Hardison of The Miracle Makers, Inc, won $2,500 for first place, Josephine Early of First Baptist Church of Crown Heights won $1,500 for second place, Adrienne Davis of St. Luke's Academy won $1,000 for third place.  In fourth and fifth places were Virginia Graham of Mt. Paran Baptist Church I and Aprele Elliott of Mt. Paran Baptist Church II.  They each received $500.  The winning bakers were also awarded engraved silver pie servers. This special event, combining scholarship opportunities with the best baking in Brooklyn, was co-sponsored by Pathmark and Health Plus.

“Nothing makes me happier than bringing Brooklynites together, especially when it is for a good cause and it involves Brooklyn’s best home cooking,” Borough President Markowitz said.  “The sweetest part of this contest was that the winning pie makers were rewarded with scholarship dollars to be distributed by Brooklyn organizations to the young people of their choice!”