Praises Sung For ​“Unsung Heroes”

James Bhandary-Alexander gets in the trenches with immigrant hotel housekeepers, building cleaners and Uber drivers to fight for decent pay and working conditions. Darrell Allick’s Ice The Beef gets in the trenches with young people in New Haven neighborhoods to save lives by stopping violence.

Their good work has been recognized by the Morris and Irmgard Wessel Fund, which has named the two winners of the fund’s annual ​“Unsung Hero Awards.”

The Wessel Fund has been granting these annual hero awards since 1993.

Click here, here and here to read stories about some of Bhandary-Alexander’s work.

Click here, here and here to read stories about some of Ice The Beef’s work.

Following is a release the Fund issued Tuesday to announce the awards: 

The Morris and Irmgard Wessel Fund announced that the latest winners of its Unsung Hero Award are James Bhandary-Alexander of New Haven Legal Assistance and Ice the Beef, an organization working to reduce violence among young people in New Haven.

Bhandary-Alexander represents low-wage workers, many of them immigrants, and their organizations before administrative agencies, in court and in the legislature. His clients, among others, have included Uber and Lyft drivers, hotel housekeepers and building cleaners. He is a committed, diligent and skillful advocate for low-wage workers. Bhandary-Alexander graduated from Northeastern University law school in 2005. 

“Defending and protecting immigrants was particularly important to our mom who fled Nazi Germany in 1939. Along with her parents, she was offered a new life by the good people of Eureka, Ill., who gave them shelter, employment and education, the Wessels’ children — David, Bruce, Paul and Lois — said in making the awards. ​“Irm also was a firm believer in the power of unions to lift the lives of working people,” they added. She served as president of her AFSCME local and was a trustee of the New Haven Central Labor Council.

Ice the Beef was founded by Darrell Allick after the murder of his 31-year-old brother, Donnell, in 2011, a year that saw 34 murders in New Haven. He turned away from drug dealing and violence to found an organization that seeks to lure young people from violence through through arts and education, peer support and motivational speaking. The organization’s current president is Chaz Carmon, who also left a life of drug-dealing behind to lead the organization. 

Morris and Irm Wessel devoted their professional careers to working with New Haven’s young people and their families. During her years at New Haven Family Counseling, Irm frequently counseled relatives of homicide victims. ​“Morris and Irm never waited for someone else to change New Haven for the better,” they added. said. ​“Like Darrell Allick, they just did it. We know they would be encouraged by the creative efforts of Ice the Beef to save lives in New Haven, and would offer their enthusiastic support.” 

The Unsung Hero Award was created in 1993 and is funded by friends and admirers of the Morris Wessel, a pediatrician, and Irmgard Wessel, a clinical social worker and community activist, to continue their decades-long efforts to make New Haven a better place for all its residents. Irm died at age 88 in 2014; Morris at age 98 in 2016. The Fund is a donor-advised fund at The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. Each award comes with a grant for the local nonprofit.

The most recent recipients of the Wessel prize were the Immigrant Bail Fund; Doreen Abubakar, a social entrepreneur and environment educator in New Haven’s Newhallville neighborhood, and Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS).

Past recipients include: Collective Consciousness Theatre (Dexter Singleton), Junta at Big Turtle Village (Rafael Ramos), Solar Youth(Joanne Sciulli), Karen DelVecchio, Donna Savia, St. Martin dePorres Academy(Mary Surowiekci), Bikes for Babes (Dan Perrotto), Grandparents on the Move, the Connecticut Health Policy Project, the Mob Squad (Al Shakir), The Natural Guard, the Inner City Bicycle Program (David Clough), The Cesar Jerez Catholic Worker House, and Leg Up (Anne Gallant). Also, Dan Kinsman, music instructor at Fair Haven School; Raymond Wallace, founder of the Guns Down, Books Up organization, and Music Haven, which brings music to local youth. 

Donations may be made online to support the work of the Wessel Fund or by check to The Morris and Irmgard Wessel Fund, c/o The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, 70 Audubon Street, New Haven, CT 06510. All gifts are tax deductible. For more information about the Fund, please contact Paul Wessel at [email protected]