By Joe Maniscalco
The two small boys immediately began pestering the modeling crew just outside Nathan’s Famous and then tailed them across Surf Avenue to the Stillwell Avenue subway station, where they proceeded to pester them some more. “Oh, you’re so pretty,” the little rascals cooed to the girls. “Can we be in the picture, too?” “Yeah, let us be in the picture, too.” They were so relentless that Jennifer Baker – the gal in charge of this outdoor shoot last summer – finally had to give in and let the pint-sized lotharios snap a quick picture with the bronze-skinned woman in shorts and halter top who – judging by the boys’ reaction – could have been a goddess incarnate. Truth is Baker, 21, thought the kids were being pretty cute themselves. “We attract an audience everywhere we go,” the journalism major at Brooklyn College says. Earlier, at L&B Spumoni Gardens on 86th Street, it seemed like everybody in the famed eatery wanted to take a picture with Baker’s gorgeous calendar girls – even the cooks left their kitchen. At Prospect Park it was the same story. The women were treated like veritable celebrities when the gent running the paddle boats around the lake gladly waived the usual $15 rental fee and allowed the homegrown beauties to tool around the water for free. It’s been this way ever since Baker got the brilliant idea to shoot a calendar of authentic Brooklyn lasses a couple of summers ago while lying out on the beach in Coney Island. The idea was simple enough: figure out somehow to raise enough money so that Baker and her tight-knit band of long-time gal-pals from St. Saviour High School could afford a luxury cruise to an exotic locale when they all turned 21. The first thing they did was throw a series of blowout parties that garnered the gals a nice chunk of change at the door. They were successful, but the ladies wanted to do “something bigger.” That’s when Baker hit upon the idea to feature real-life women – all from Brooklyn – in their very own calendar. Baker knew it could work – after all, didn’t everybody have their own calendar these days? Even the FDNY had one, so why not the girls of Brooklyn? A core group slowly began to emerge out of the gaggle of friends originally committed to the project – a savvy nucleus of female entrepreneurs who turned out to be very well suited for the enterprise. “We lucked out because in the beginning there was a much larger group, and it turned ugly,” Baker says. “But the three of us work well together because we are so different.” Baker was the visionary. Her pal Janelle DiBenedetto – the Hunter College accountant major – was the numbers cruncher. And their friend T’ara Delahunt, the artistically inclined NYU student, was the creative one. By the end of that same day, when Baker experienced her beach blanket brainstorm, the women had an ad for models posted on Craig’s List and a handful of interested candidates from Mill Basin, Dyker Heights and Bay Ridge. “It just took off like crazy,” says Baker. The 2007 calendar sells for $7 and is now available in Park Slope at the Barnes & Noble at 267 7th Avenue and Sport Prospect at 362 7th Avenue; and in Bensonhurst at A Card for All Occasions at 6920 13th Avenue and Card Curio at 1537 86th street. It’s also available online at www.brooklyncalendargirls.com. The calendar crew has even started casting for next year’s Brooklyn Calendar Girls lineup. While the original plan was to earn enough money to afford a dream cruise, the calendar has been doing so well that Baker and company are now looking at a number of women’s charities to donate a portion of the proceeds. “It’s not too sexy,” Baker explains. “We don’t want it to be a ‘bikinis in January’ type of thing. We want it to be as real as possible. We’re trying to emphasize natural beauty and that the girl next door could be a super model.” The calendar team is specifically targeting all of those lovelorn fellas set to leave their beloved Brooklyn beauties for out-of-state colleges in the fall. “Now they can keep them in their dorm rooms,” the Windsor Terrace gal giggles. The average age of the Brooklyn Calendar girls is about 21. The oldest is 24 and the youngest is 19. Baker hopes that more mature audiences will appreciate the authentic hometown milieus specific to each woman featured in the calendar. “We wanted diversity,” she says, “because that’s Brooklyn.” But Baker and her cohorts found that some neighborhoods were harder to recruit than others. Bensonhurst and Bay Ridge Girls, for instance, were the easiest – that’s where Baker and her pals spend most of their free time hanging out and it was simple to approach potential candidates. Flatbush and Canarsie women, however, were a little tougher. “A lot of the girls turned it down,” says Baker. “We tried handing out flyers to girls and they looked at us like we were bugs.” Other girls were surprisingly more amenable. Baker recalls spotting one young woman on the F train near 4th Avenue who, to her, looked just like a Barbie doll. “I said do you model, because I have a great opportunity,” Baker says. “I was shocked that she was so receptive.” Baker and company have high praise for the women who decided to take a chance on their project. “Thank god for the girls that accepted,” she says. “They were like our guinea pigs. We want nothing but positive things for them.” Baker estimates that they’ll finish shooting all the girls before the summer ends and begin selling the completed calendars at street fairs like the 18th Avenue feast in late August. “The whole thing was a learning experience,” she says. “I never pictured myself doing anything in the business field. It’s a silly calendar but at the same time it’s a big step.” Not everyone thought the gals could pull it off, however. “We had a lot of people who doubted us,” Baker admits. “We have a lot to prove.” Baker’s most vocal critic turned out to be her own boyfriend Scott – but then he got assigned to do a little “scouting” for the calendar. “He checks out other girls,” Baker says. “It’s fine. “He gets along with all of the calendar girls. “When the time comes, he’ll go on the cruise, too.” For more information about purchasing a calendar or scheduling an audition, log onto www.brooklyncalendargirls.com.
