The Eden II\/Genesis Foundation\u2019s Winter Wonderland Gala recently drew more than 400 supporters to the Hilton Garden Inn, marking the autism services organization\u2019s most successful fundraiser to date.<\/p>\n
The Dec. 5 event exceeded previous years in both attendance and dollars raised, according to the foundation. Guests participated in raffles, a 50\/50 drawing and silent and live auctions throughout the evening. A live appeal also generated donations.<\/p>\n
The foundation recognized five individuals and groups for their work in the autism community. Dr. Donna Corrado received the Trailblazer Award, while Tamara Roff was honored with the Champion of Service Award. The Staten Island North Shore Rotary earned the Community Leadership Award. Tommy Bowden received the Star Student Award, and Peter D\u2019Agostino was presented with the Exceptional Role Model Award.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year\u2019s Winter Wonderland Gala was extraordinary in every way,\u201d said Dr. Joanne Gerenser, Eden II executive director. \u201cThe incredible support we received reflects the community\u2019s belief in our mission and the life-changing work happening across Eden II programs. We are deeply grateful to our honorees, supporters, and partners for making this our most successful gala ever. The generosity in the room was overwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n
Associate Executive Director Randy Horowitz praised the staff organizers of the event. \u201cOur team works tirelessly every single day for the individuals we serve \u2014 but the way they came together to create such a classy, seamless gala is truly extraordinary,\u201d Horowitz said. \u201cWe are so grateful for their dedication.\u201d<\/p>\n
All proceeds will support Eden II\u2019s programs and services for children and adults with autism on Staten Island and Long Island, according to the organization, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Eden II\/Genesis Foundation\u2019s Winter Wonderland Gala recently drew more than 400 supporters to the Hilton Garden Inn,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-78659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}