Since 1992, Big Apple Greeters has been sending volunteers to conduct free tours of the city through the eyes of a New Yorker. Over 300 volunteers conduct tours in 22 languages, but the kind service is in danger of stopping if they can't raise $300,000 by the fall. Founder Lynn Brooks told the Daily News, "We have to pay for very little... but it's a huge infrastructure to get the right volunteer meeting the right visitor in the right language in the right place in the right time." She even gave up her salary a few months ago. more ›

Costumed performers and tour guides are fighting for unionization at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, where they work to recreate the squalid living conditions of turn-of-the-century Jewish immigrants, the very group that was integral to 20th century unionization efforts. Dozens of the tenement employees protested last night outside a fundraiser for the museum at Chelsea Piers. more ›