MDA Muscle Team 2005

Jan 4, 2005

Pier 60, NYC

The Muscular Distrophy Association (MDA) just held its 2005 Muscle Team event, and WOW! what a great event it was. There were celebrities such 1976 Olympic Gold Medalist Figure Skater Dorothy Hammill, New York Jets football player John Abraham, New York Giants player Will Allen, New York Giants player Tiki Barber, New York Jets play Chris Becker, New York Jets Player Shaun Ellis, New Jersey Nets player Richard Jefferson, New York Giants Player Will Peterson, Metrostars player Tim Regan, and New York Jets player Jerald Sowell.

The purpose of the event was to raise money to send children afflicted with Muscular Distrophy to summer camp where they can spend a beautiful week among other children with similar afflictions. The children who were introduced this year include eight-year-old Sabrina Beck, eleven-year-old Anthony DeVirgillo, 14-year-old Abdel Kareem Hamad, Ahmed Hamad, eleven-year-old Nicholas La Duca, Jessica Maloney, Nicholas Piazza and twelve-year-old Juan Reyes.

This event started off with a wonderful cocktail hour, during which people were invited to bid on items in the silent auction. The gala started off with a warm welcome bySportscaster Russ Salzberg, from WWOR-TV/UPN 9, where he has been for the past 17 years. Everyone enjoyed the event, which included a live auction in which a nice selection of prizes went up on the auction block. Miss USA 2004 and Miss New York USA 2005 were also at the event, greeting guests and taking photographs with them. In addition, the Muscular Dystrophy Association raised close to $1 Million that night. The audience, which included guests from many corporations, was also encouraged to pledge donations to send these neuro-muscular disease afflicted kids to summer camp. Some pledged as much as $6,000 to send as many as 10 kids at a time to summer camp. What a generous donation. There were also two honorees at the event. Michelle R. Ferguson, Senior Vice President of Real Estate and Human Resources Services, who has served as the Coach for the MDA’s Muscle Team for 2003, 2004, and 2005. The second honoree was Peter G. Riguardi, President of the New York Region of Jones Lang LaSalle, who has more than twenty years of experience in commercial real estate. Mr. Riguardi is now in his second year as coach for the MDA’s Muscle team. Mr. Anthony Cammarata, Goldman Sachs & Co Vice President of Corporate Facilities & Real Estate, won the Champion of Spirit Award, which was presented in loving memory of Mahmoud Hamad, who died at the young age of fourteen. Congratulations to all of the honorees!

This was a fabulous, star-studded event, with celebrities everywhere—supermodel Maggie Rizer; Miss USA 2005 Shandi Finnessey, NY Jets players Chris Becker, John Abraham, Shaun Ellis and Jerald Sowell; New Yorg Giants team players Will Allen, Will Peterson and Tiki Barber; NJ Nets player Richard Jefferson, NY/NJ Metrostars Tim Regan; Special Guests Olympic Figure Skating Champion Dorothy Hammill; NY Mets player Bud Harrelson; NY Jets player Freeman McNeil; boxing great Bobby Czyz, NY Knicks player Cal Ramsey, and NY Giants player Carl Nelson; and former four-time world boxing great Iran Barkley—too many to mention all of them. The dinner was also delicious, and the dessert, heavenly.

We want to thank Ms. Liz Derenger, the P.R. queen and publicist for the MDA event, for doing an outstanding job in organizing this wonderful event. We would also like to thank Joseph, Ms. Derenger’s colleague, for assisting us in setting up different interviews with celebrities, which contributed to the article in a very big way.

For more information about contributing to this great organization, please feel free to log onto their website, at www.mdausa.org.

Abbey H. Muneer is the Executive Director of H.A.D. Organization of New York City, Inc., a world-famous athlete, author and, above all, a humanitarian. Abbey will write articles about charity events, benefits, fundraisers and galas which are raising money for humantiarian causes. If you are interested in having Abbey and one his staff members cover one of your charity events, benefits, fundraisers or galas, feel free to notify us one week in advance, at LNEvents@hadofnyc.org, or telephone us at (718) 507-7616, between the hours of 8:00am and 8:00pm e.s.t. and ask to speak to Abbey or Maria. If you would like more information, or would like to have Liberty News Online Magazine consult your next charitable event, please feel free to visit our website, at http://www.hadofnyc.org/store/success.html, email us at humanitarians@hadofnyc.org, or telephone our hotline, at (718) 507-7616, between the hours of 8:00am and 8:00pm e.s.t. (U.S.A.)