A fundraiser begun by a Manhasset resident to support cancer treatment programs at the St. Mary’s Healthcare System for Children in Queens will hold its fourth annual event on July 15.
The event, an open bar and auction called Cocktails With a Cause, will be held from 6:30-9 p.m. at the STK Rooftop Downtown in Manhattan.
“These kids have done more for me than I’ve done for them,” said Chris Savino, of Flower Hill, the event’s founder and committee member. “They’ve made me realize what’s really important in life, and I really enjoy spending time with these guys.”
The event will also feature celebrity guest appearances by actor Stephen Baldwin, former Miss USA 2012 Nana Meriwether and ABC 7 Eyewitness News entertainment reporter Sandy Kenyon.
Philip DeFina, the founder, chief executive officer and chief scientific officer of the International Brain Research Foundation Inc., will deliver the evening’s keynote address, which Savino said would focus on traumatic brain injuries.
Tickets for this year’s fundraiser are $200, though Savino said up to $175 is deductible.
During the three-hour open bar, complete with food and a DJ, guests will have the opportunity to bid on various prizes and experiences compiled by the event’s committee.
Savino, an executive director of equity trading at Morgan Stanley, started the event after seeing how chemotherapy treatments improved the condition of a friend’s son whose bout with Leukemia kept him isolated from the other children at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
“I was like, wow, all the things going on in life, it makes you think of how you’d handle that if that was your kid and he was just so inspiring,” Savino said. “It really put everything into perspective.”
Savino took personal funds he set aside for a vacation to the Caribbean and instead took the money to St. Mary’s Hospital for Children in Bayside, arranging for the patients there to attend a New York Islanders game at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and meet the players during a postgame lunch.
“It was great to get them out of the hospital for a day,” he said. “Some of these kids really have heartbreaking stories, like they get sick and their parents take them to the hospital and don’t come back to pick them up. It’s just touching to give back.”
In its first three years, Cocktails With a Cause has raised more than $600,000 for St. Mary’s Hospital for Children.
“I know that bankers are not the most popular people in the world right now, especially with all that happened a few years ago, but this is a time for people to give their money for a good cause and it’s a great event,” Savino said.
