2013
03/18/2013 - The Perlman Music Program Cocktails, Dinner and a Chamber Music Concert in Palm Beach
03/15/2013 - Asia Week New York Kick-off Reception at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
03/12/2013 - Third Annual Fountain House Associates Spring Breakfast: “Between The Sheets”
03/05/2013 - NYU LANGONE MEDICAL CENTER’S FACES GALA HONORING LEON CHARNEY RAISED $4.5 MILLION
02/23/2013 - "I Have A Voice" fundraiser for Gigi's PLAYHOUSE
02/23/2013 - Eleventh Annual “Thanksgiving in February” Feeds over 500 of New York’s Needy
02/21/2013 - The French Heritage Society's Annual Palm Beach Gala Dinner
02/21/2013 - 24th Annual Gala of Heart & Soul Charitable Fund Auction at Christie’s
02/21/2013 - Eva Longoria Hosts Benefit for “Food Chains” Documentary - Exposes Exploitation in Am’s Farm Labor
02/13/2013 - Verdura hosts a fundraiser for“The Michael Feinstein American Songbook Initiative”
02/13/2013 - Lost and Found: The Pinajian Discovery, a benefit preview for the Fund for Armenian Relief
02/08/2013 - 56th Annual Red Cross Ball in Palm Beach
02/07/2013 - Lost and Found: The Pinajian Discovery benefit preview for the Fund for Armenian Relief
02/06/2013 - All Star Orchestra’s Preview Screening of their New Classical Music and On-line Education Television
01/29/2013 - Urban Greenwalk
01/23/2013 - The Perlman Music Program Fourth Charity Wine Auction
01/20/2013 - Budapest Festival Orchestra
2012
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2009
2008
2007
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American Cancer Society Honors Grace Hightower De Niro, Diane Reidy-Lagunes MD, Emily Sonnenblick MD
03/01/2012 - By www.AnnieWatt.com

American Cancer Society Honors Grace Hightower De Niro, Diane Reidy-Lagunes MD, Emily Sonnenblick MD
photos by Annie Watt (917) 968-1210

Robert De Niro, Grace Hightower De Niro, Diane Reidy-Lagunes MD, Emily Sonnenblick MD, Don Destazio

NYC's Plaza Grand Ballroom was a celebration of three remarkable women at the 17th Annual American Cancer Society’s Mothers of the Year luncheon, Grace Hightower De Niro, Oncologist Dr. Diane Reidy-Lagunes, and radiologist Dr. Emily Sonnenblick.

Diana Feldman, Honorary Chairman of Special Events for the Society, called the luncheon to order. She described the honorees as, “Stellar examples of what it means to be a mother.”
Everyone who spoke paid tribute to Hope Lodge (132 West 32nd Street), which has served 7,500 cancer patients from 46 states and 31 countries, since it opened in November 2007. Patients and their caregivers stay at Hope Lodge as long as necessary free of charge.
Paula Zahn, Master of Ceremonies, explained her devotion to the Society. “Both of my parents were diagnosed with cancer within weeks of each other. “My mother is a two-time breast cancer survivor. Sadly my father didn’t survive.”
She went on to say that the ACS is the largest, private funder of cancer research in the nation behind the US Government. “The Society has had a hand in nearly every major break through in cancer treatment. In 1913, when the Society was founded, the survival rate was 1 in 10. By 1950 the survival rate increased to 1 in 5. Today the survival rate is 1 in 2.”
Anna Offit present the first award of the afternoon to her mother Dr. Emily Sonnenblick, a radiologist known for finding tumors before they are visible. Offit celebrated her mother saying, “I’m one of three sisters and my mother is one of three sisters. She leads by example. I owe her a lifetime of thanks.”
Dr. Sonnenblick accepted her award by paying homage to her mother Linda Sonnenblick as well as her three daughters: Anna, a law student; Caroline Offit, a filmmaker/med student and Lily Offit, a college freshman, works with autism. Dr. Sonneblick emphasized that mammograms have cut the rate of death from breast cancer.
Nancy Parenti, a cancer survivor, presented the award to Dr, Reidy-Lagunes. She told how two years ago she was diagnosed with a rare cancer. “My hope was lost.” She traveled from Washington DC to New York to get treatment. When it was obvious that the therapy was working Parenti said, “Dr. Reidy was more excited about the success than I was.”
Reidy-Lagunes said, “Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is the best hospital in the world because it is specialized.” On a personal note she acknowledged that her husband Sergio Lagunes was stricken with a stroke on their honeymoon in Vietnam. He’s totally recovered but the image stays with me. “I see the terror of my husband face in everyone of my patients. I dedicate today so people can have tomorrow.”
Two-time Academy Award winner Robert De Niro introduced his wife Grace Hightower. He said, “Preparing to be Jake Lamotta in Raging Bull, gaining and loosing weight, and battling and surviving cancer was nothing like the pressure I had to deal with to make this speech. I have to do a good job else I wont have any place to sleep tonight!” After the laughter subsided, he continued, “I’m so proud of her, proud that her accomplishments are being honored. For our family she is Mother of the year every year. Today, she’s yours.”
Grace Hightower said, “I took a close look at the word mother. It’s defined as the origin of something, nurturing, able to learn from. Everyone here, that’s including the men, are mothers of the universe.”
Among those guests were: Muffie Potter Aston, 2011 (MotY); CeCe Black; Susan Bloomberg 2003 (MotY); Cricket Burns; Wendy Carduner; Roni Cowan; Lee Daniels; Don Distasio, ACS CEO Eastern Division; Sandy Diamond; Jean Doumanian; Somers Farkas; Richard Feldman; Charlotte Ford, 2004 (MotY); Marilena Greig; Caroline Hirsch; Rachel Hovnanian; Lynn Jacobson; Prudence Solomon Inzerillo; Donna Karan; Karen Klopp; Elyse Kroll; Ted Kruckel; Dwight Johnson; Bonnie Comley Lane; Stewart F. Lane; Sergio Lagunes; Linda G. Levy; Cynthia Lufkin, 2008 (MotY); Wendy Mazo, ACS VP Leadership Giving; Adam Nashban, Director Distinguished Events; Ken Offit; A Gianna Palminteri; Jen Podoll, ACS Executive VP, Metro NY; Heather Randall; Dr. Freya Schnabel, 2011 (MotY); Peggy Siegal; Allison Stern; Arlene Weidberg.


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