At the age of twelve I was having terrible headaches. After my parents struggling to figure out what was wrong, I was transferred to the Columbia Presbyterian Hospital where I was put into an MRI. This is 1979, and the MRI just invented a few years before, the local hospital in New Jersey did not have one. It showed a Subdermal Hematoma and was rushed into surgery. Thanks to Dr. Arnold Gold (not related) and surgeon Dr. Carmel I was lucky enough to survive.  

Eleven years earlier my late wife Sheila was born with a tracheoesophageal fistula and raced to the same hospital. At the time it was known as the baby’s hospital. Doctors performed complex surgery and were able to save her life. Fast forward to the early 1980s my sister was diagnosed with cancer, and again it was the same hospital that came to the rescue. While I could spend a good amount of time talking about these two, but my point is that the impact that the Columbia Presbyterian Hospital made on my family and me directly is incredible.  

Over the last two posts I described the impact my dad had on me and the success he achieved. Not to be left out of the discussion, my mom founded, and ran an adoption agency for handicapped and hard-to-place children. For her work, she was awarded by Bill Bradley Woman of the year. Looking back, living up to both, or even just one, would be rather difficult. My aptitude did not lean towards following them, so I chose something different.  

I was fortunate in my career to have a few mentors early in my career who gave me some good advice. One piece of advice that stuck was while working at a company make sure you take advantage of as many of the benefits that are available to you. Most people know about health benefits, retirement etc. But there are some that are less leveraged, the notion of companies matching donations and the ability to take time off to volunteer. I am not sure that is what he wanted to point out, but it was something I found. 

Understanding this I produced a simple thought. The best way to help a charity is to find a single charity that you are connected to and focus on that. Instead of donating insignificant amounts all over the place, it is to find a single charity and donate to it. Where I currently work each year, they ask for donations once a year, and give some matching percentage. I took full advantage of it. We also have ‘volunteer’ month where the firm wants you to take part in your community. Mentioned earlier this year, after a 5-year absence we were able return to the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital and spend an afternoon doing arts and crafts. I have run a bunch of these, donating the supplies and rounding up people to help. I cannot thank the team enough at the Morgan Stanley Children’s hospital for working with me.  

The formula I found is one way you can make a difference. First find a charity that is close to you, and leverage what is available around you to enhance your impact. The notion of one allows you to understand the needs, build a relationship with the charity and meet a lot of great people. This is quite different from the path my parents chose. I still hope to make an impact. While editing this and rewriting this I kept thinking the ideas I wanted to surface may not be what I learned while writing it. Throwing that out, while reading this you should not walk away thinking these are the only ways to go. What you should take away is that you can find your own way to make an impact. That is what I did, I took lessons from my parents and others to discover who I am.  

Much of this blog is about lessons I learned over my life, the stories behind them and things I think about. In this case I learned while writing to get out my story. Wait, did I say the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital and not the Columbian Presbyterian Hospital a few paragraphs ago? Yes, I did. Morgan Stanley donated more than $55 million to build the MSCH and donates ongoing to ensure all administrative costs are met. But it is the institution that saved my late wife, my sister and me.  

This opinion is mine, and mine only, my current or former employers have nothing to do with it. I do not write for any financial gain; I do not take advertising and any product company listed was not done for payment. But if you do like what I write you can donate to the charity I support (with my wife who passed away in 2017) Morgan Stanley’s Children’s Hospital or donate to your favorite charity. The fundraising site had to be restarted and NYP Hospital made changes to their donation sites. I pay to host my site out of my own pocket, my intention is to keep it free.  You are welcome to comment, but note it is moderated and all spam will be removed.

This Blog is a labor of love and was originally going to be a book. With the advent of being able to publish yourself on the web I chose this path. I will write many of these and not worry too much about grammar or spelling (I will try to come back later and fix it) but focus on content. I apologize in advance for my ADD as often topics may flip. I hope one day to turn this into a book and or a podcast, but for now it will remain a blog.  AI is not used in this writing other than using the web to find information. Images without notes are created using an AI tool that allows me to reuse them.