For the last several years, Gregg Hamerschlag has donated a large tv as the grand prize for UJA’s Sports Talk Texas Hold Em after party. Each year the tv seems to get bigger. This year it was a whopping 60″ Sharp. In addition to being the long term co-chair of the event, I was this year’s winner.
Last year’s winner, Ben Blumberg, set a wonderful precedent of donating it to one of UJA’s donor agencies, a shelter in Brooklyn that had been wiped out by Superstorm Sandy. Although we don’t have a tv quite as large as this one, we do have a couple of really nice flat screen tv’s in the house already, so there was no question in my mind that I would follow Ben’s lead. I suggested the Pleasantville Cottage School to UJA’s Nora Shapiro, and she was able to arrange it. It took a while for all of our schedules to synch, but we finally were able to bring it last week. It is going in their rec room, which really needed a big tv. Someone issued a press release and the Chappaqua Daily Voice picked it up. Click here to see the article.
Originally founded as an orphanage for Jewish children, Pleasantville Cottage School has evolved into a residential treatment program for mostly inner city kids coping with a range of issues from emotional and physical abuse to drugs. It’s hard to argue with their motto: Every Child Deserves to Grow Up Hopeful.
