St. Mary’s 2006 Tribute Dinner Becomes Most Successful in the Healthcare System’s History

Event Raises $685,000 and honors J.P. Morgan Chase’s Leslie Heifetz

Bayside, NY – St. Mary’s Healthcare System for Children’s annual Tribute Dinner on November 9, 2006 raised $685,000 for needed inpatient, outpatient and home care programs and services provided daily to more than 3,000 children in the New York Metropolitan region and beyond – making it the most successful event in St. Mary’s history.

“I believe every great organization has a soul, a spirit and character that starts at the top and really filters through the air of the place. The living soul of St. Mary’s is one of compassion and caring and excellence and you feel it the moment you walk through the door,” Dinner Chair Josh N. Kuriloff commented in his introduction of the evening’s honoree Leslie Heifetz.

That soul was showcased throughout the evening’s program through the premier of A New Beginning (Click to view) by Suzy Shechtman Productions, a short film showcasing how three families received a fresh start at St. Mary’s, a poetry reading by former patient Barry D. Stuldivant, and comments from Bernie Yee and Stephanie Smith, parents of Max Smith-Yee, a toddler who received treatment through St. Mary’s innovative pediatric feeding program.

“NICUs get the glory of saving lives but places like St. Mary’s puts those lives back together. This is the story after the credits roll and the happily ever after,” Yee explained.

Heifetz concluded the event by remarking, “As a parent, as a mother, it is difficult to imagine that there are children who are so sick and in need of so much help. Yet to visit St. Mary’s is to understand. It is to feel the hope, to experience the optimism, to understand that lives can be rebuilt. It is to stand in awe of the staff – those who are the true heroes, the true honorees, those who give of themselves every day and expect nothing in return. Walking through St. Mary’s is to realize that the unthinkable can happen, and if it does, the people of St. Mary’s are there to help. They are the reason we are here tonight. They are the reason I am honored to stand here right now.”

Josh N. Kuriloff, Executive Vice President, Cushman & Wakefield, Inc., served as this year’s Dinner Chair along with Honorary Dinner Chair Charles Borrok, Vice Chairman, Cushman & Wakefield, Inc., and Chair of the Dinner Planning Committee Janice Hamilton, President, JMH Education Marketing.

The Dinner Committee included: Anthony Carvette, Structure Tone; Calvin Farley, Tishman Speyer Properties; Cynthia L. Foster, Cushman & Wakefield, Inc.; David Greenbaum, Vornado Realty Trust; Paul N. Glickman, Cushman & Wakefield, Inc.; Gustav J. Gollisz, Citigroup, Inc.; Samuel R. Karetsky, The Karetsky Group, LLC; Brian MacDonald, Citigroup, Inc.; Bruce E. Mosler, Cushman & Wakefield, Inc.; Ellen Snibbe Baker, Commerce Bank; Danielle Sprouls, Liberty Title Agency, LLC; Joyce Takigucki, ComStar International, Inc.; Stephen Brent Wells, The Solaris Group, LLC; and Bernie Yee, Atari.

Visionary Sponsors of the event included Cindy and Tod Johnson; Cushman & Wakefield, Inc.; D&J Ambulette Service; Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP; SL Green Realty. Hero Sponsors of the event included: ABM; CB Richard Ellis; Liberty Title Agency; Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP; JPMorgan Chase; Newmark Knight Frank; SJP Properties; Structure Tone Inc.; TPG Architecture; and Trammell Crow Company.