My new IPAD! What an incredible gift! THANK YOU Columbia Neurosurgery Dept!!

During my first week in NYC 5 years ago, I met a neurosurgery resident, Dr. Rick Komatar through another great friend, Dr. J Mocco. Rick began telling me about a softball game he arranged the year prior with a few other medical institutions in the area. I thought wow, that's pretty cool, and that's when my wheels started spinning. My head was spinning too, but that was from the beer. Anyway, neurosurgeons playing softball? That must be a sight. You don't see that everyday! Marry this event with charity, and this could be big! By night's end we had the blueprint in place for what would turn out to be (6 events later) an incredible, nationally recognized charity softball tournament (24 teams of neurosurgeons from all over US & Canada) to benefit pediatric brain tumor research. ColumbiaKidsNeuro.org

Our first (official) organized event took place June 5, 2005, six weeks after I moved to NYC and six weeks after meeting Rick. We had SO much work to do to pull off this off – sleep was not an option. I convinced my best friend Sherrie Matusz to help us out, and thank goodness she did!! We laughed, we cried, we fought, we hugged it out (we almost threw an over excited/eager Rick under a bus. Joke haha) Truth be told, he did send a minimum of 100 emails per day for about 4 weeks! (not kidding) In the end we had ourselves our first tournament, sponsored by the George Steinbrenner and the NY Yankees. Quite an accomplishment, and only possible because of the unconditional support of Columbia Neurosurgery Department. We were excited and passionate about our new plan and they never hesitated. They jumped on board and embraced the idea from the moment it was conceived. Truly amazing. Their heart's are definitely in the right place!

Those who know me know how much I live for charity. Helping great causes and those less fortunate is in my blood, it's my passion. I don't ever expect anything in return (although I do wish there was a way to be a full-time "sponsored" do-gooder and do this for a living - haha omg, I crack myself up). Anyway, there's a lot of people out there like me. They'll all agree that doing any sort of charity work (large or small) is so incredibly rewarding and the feeling of euphoria is thanks enough. Seriously, I'm not kidding. The feeling is intoxicating. People say that charity work is a selfless act, but it's really not. Selfishly I do it because it makes me feel so alive and it gives my life purpose and meaning.

That being said, I will; however, HAPPILY ACCEPT the awesome new IPAD the Columbia Neurosurgery Department bought for me as a "thank you" for running their charity event for so many years!  So incredible. What a surprise!! I appreciate it so much. It's also a "bon voyage/safe travels" gift too. :)

Thank you Dr. Rick Komatar (an amazing brain surgeon, and a more amazing person), Greta Perovic (my extraordinary co-leader - event would not be possible without you), John Collins, Dr. Jeff Bruce and the entire Columbia Neurosurgery Department!