MVRP Foundation gives back to artistic community in memory of Brooklynite

After her son Michael Vincent Rosen-Pipitone died at age 21, Alison Rosen vowed to make a difference in the world in his name.

She founded the MVRP Foundation in 2015 to help give back in his memory, raising money to help fund scholarships and programs for people like Michael: artistic, creative young adults.

“The goal of the foundation was to keep Michael’s light and help others. That was our initial goal, because Michael died so young and he was so passionate about art and life and people. And so we felt a really strong need to help other people,” said Rosen. “We are all about compassion and kindness because that is who Michael was.”

Rosen described her son in a release about the foundation as someone who was “passionate and kind and loving, in addition to being enormously talented.” He was a prolific writer, wrote Rosen, and enjoyed performing and comedy.

The foundation works to fund scholarships for students at Edward R. Murrow High School in Midwood, where Rosen-Pipitone went to high school, and Borough of Manhattan Community College, where he went to college for a year, as well as to the National Alliance for Mental Illness, the Jazz Power Initiative and the People’s Improvisation Theater.

Rosen stated that another goal of the foundation is to bring better awareness to and decrease the stigma around mental illness. Rosen-Pipitone died from a medication’s treatable side effect while being treated for mental illness.

The foundation’s goal for this year is to raise $50,000.

To that end, on April 29, the foundation will host its fourth benefit fundraiser, bringing together both amateur and professional performers to entertain attendees through jazz music and comedy. In the past, the fundraiser has taken different forms, including the production of a play Rosen-Pipitone wrote five months before he died.

The fundraiser will take place in Manhattan at Goddard Riverside’s Bernie Wohl Center, 647 Columbus Avenue. Tickets can be purchased at https://mvrp.brownpapertickets.com. Donations can also be made at www.crowdrise.com/mvrp.