Fundraising Season

June through September is our big fundraising season for the FSMA Greater NY Chapter. We held some amazing events this summer. Been behind in my blogging so here is a brief summary of what we accomplished.

We held our first ever Golf Outing at Hudson Hills Golf Course in Weschester County. It was an amazing day. My cousin, Rob, who is also the Westchester County Executive came to the event and declared the entire month SMA Awareness Month in Westchester and presented us with a proclamation. We were able to take in over $40,000 for this event. Many thanks to everyone who helped. Here are some pictures taken from our volunteer photographer, Jeff Rhode.

Next up was our Annual SMA Awareness Day at Citifield with the NY Mets in memory of baby Stephen Ruocco. The families who attended had a wonderful time. We received a donation from one of the family members so that the kids were able to attend the game for free. The kids were invited on the field for an Spirit Award Presentation which we received with NY Met's Star 3rd Baseman, David Wright. Later on in the game the Mets played a PSA which we made to help raise awareness. After the game all of the kids were invited to be VIPs during the Mr. Met's Dash and run around the bases. It was a fun day for the kids and families.

Just a few weeks later we had SMA Awareness Day at Yankee Stadium with the NY Yankees in memory of Ciara Van De Loo. The Yankees were very generous and donated some tickets to the kids in attendance. A few of the kids were invited to go on the field for a presentation on SMA where we were presented with a check for $10,000 from Quest Diagnostics and the kids were greeted by NY Yankees star centerfielder, Curtis Granderson. Dylan was held back in order to get a hello from his favorite pitcher, AJ Burnett. We then enjoyed watching the Yankees win the ball game.

The Grand Finale was our 7th Annual Walk N Roll in Long Beach, NY in memory of Keira Sweeney. It was a beautiful day and we had 20 SMA families from the Greater NY area participate. We were able to raise over $74,000!!! Completely amazing stuff. All but $5,000 was raised as a collective effort of SMA families. I was so proud of how hard the Greater NY Chapter Families worked this summer to raise funds and awareness to hopefully someday put an end to this disease. Now on to planning next year's events.....