Marie Leanza & Tillie Tarantino

Marie Leanza and Tillie Tarantino. . , This building honors grassroots women activists Marie Leanza and Tillie Tarantino for becoming community leaders and for their abiding commitment to the betterment of Williamsburg-Greenpoint. Marie and Tillie, lifelong Williamsburg residents, become involved in 1975 with the National Congress of Neighborhood Women through the Neighborhood Women College Program. Marie Leanza worked for over three decades at St Nicks Alliance specializing in senior housing. She led the fight against redlining in Williamsburg, which resulted in a commitment from Anchor Bank to invest five million dollars in the neighborhood. She was key to the establishment of the Building Survival Fund., Tillie Tarantino co-founded the Conselyea Street Block Association in 1968 to bring services to parents and seniors from the Williamsburg-Greenpoint community. She was a founder of Small World Day Care Center and served as Executive Director of the Swinging Sixties Senior Center for over three decades. Tillie had a special interest in seniors' rights, always advocating at a local, city and state level, for improved senior housing and health programs.