“How do I love you? Let me count the ways” is how I began my introduction of my daughter Samantha who was receiving the Woodbury Ball for Autism annual Community Leadership Award at the historic Sands Point Preserve mansion/castle.
Samantha has always been a giving, caring person and I’m sure she decided to get her master’s degree in social work from Columbia in part because of her oldest sister Lara, who was brain damaged in the baby nursery hours after her birth and was developmentally a three-month-old for her 17 years on earth. Lara changed all our lives and I’m sure influenced Samantha in her choice of a career.
Samantha works part time at Young Adult Institute (YAI) and double time as a mother of my dearest grandchildren Blake and Morgan and wife to her devoted, supportive husband, Spencer.
Somehow, amidst her overflowing responsibilities, she finds time to be her childrens’ class mother and co-president of the PTA, and create dinner parties for all our holiday dinners, greeting over 25 people with aplomb, warmth and ease.
Life’s WORC is the organization I co-founded in 1971 and each year for over two decades we have raised much needed funds at the Geraldo Rivera golf outing. Samantha came up with the idea to add an ingredient to the powerful fundraiser, a card/mahjong luncheon party at the outing for non-golfers while the golfers are playing the course.
Thanks to her efforts, we raised thousands of much needed dollars at the luncheon and gained new friends to the cause.
So when she was nominated to receive recognition for her years of giving back, I was thrilled and touched.
She spoke powerfully of keeping the torch lit for every child to receive the services he or she needs to flourish.
I loved how she shared that the needs of families whose children are in the autism spectrum are being served by Life’s WORC’s Family Center For Autism. She spoke of how the organization and its staffers are there to make sure all the children that are served are allowed to grow to their greatest potential and to make sure, as well, that their parents receive support services to help them cope.
My daughter is the future and she is keeping the torch shining brightly. How blessed am I and all the families in desperate need of quality services for their children.
Guardians of the cause gathered at the Woodbury Ball for Autism and I’m delighted to have met Jennifer Polansky, editor in chief of Woodbury magazine, who has created the glamorous, enormously successful packed-house fundraisers for 15 years. What a blessing she is!
The future for people with special needs offers new hope with many more lights to show the way. The battle has no end — we must persevere and make this world a better place for them.
I’m bursting with pride that Samantha is helping to lead the way….
