The HHC Foundation’s Fourth Annual Breakfast Benefit brought the house to laughter and applause many times over on May 21, 2008 at Cipriani 42nd Street. Special guests included Mariano Rivera of the NY Yankees, Bob Lee, WBLS Radio Personality and Academy Award performer IMPACT Repertory Theatre. Close to 500 leaders, from a cross-section of corporate supporters and individuals with a dedication to the health of New Yorkers, came out bright and early in support of the public hospitals and the day’s honorees: Brandon Steiner, Founder and Chairman of Steiner Sports Marketing, Doug E. Fresh, Hip Hop Icon and Record Producer, and Dr. Max Gomez, Medical Reporter for WCBS-TV. $525,000 was raised to support the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), which provides quality healthcare to all New Yorkers regardless of the ability to pay.

The morning began with an invigorating performance by Impact Repertory Theatre of their Academy Award nominated best original song, ‘Raise It Up’ featured in the movie August Rush. After a healthy breakfast, an award was presented to Doug E. Fresh for social innovation and his involvement with HHC Harlem Hospital’s Hip Hop Stroke Program. Evidence-based, the Hip Hop Stroke Program is bringing stroke recognition and healthy lifestyle education to New York’s schoolchildren, empowering them to identify stroke symptoms in others and to encourage a healthy lifestyle. Guests were treated to a second performance by Impact, of the world debut of “Keeping Your Brain Healthy”, written and produced by Doug E. Fresh. Max Gomez, for his ongoing support of HHC and the Foundation, received an Excellence in Healthcare Reporting award and received tremendous applause for his heartwarming remarks. Honoring Brandon Steiner, Founder and Chairman of Steiner Sports Marketing, Mariano Rivera brought the crowd to laughter as he recounted their first encounter, an example of Steiner’s ambitious and genuine character.

HHC Foundation has accomplished a great deal with the funds raised by its Annual Breakfast. In its role as grantmaker, the HHC Foundation uses the proceeds from the Annual Breakfast to award grants in support of programs within New York City’s public hospital system that meet citywide priorities and are scalable, replicable and sustainable. Programs supported by last year’s Breakfast include:

• E-Learning System, a pilot initiative to train staff and educate patients in a faster, more efficient and cost effective manner providing an interactive education resource for both staff and patients;
• Clinical Ethics consultation, to credential and privilege physicians and other health professionals as clinical ethics consultants in order to conform clinical ethical consultation to standards of practice and to provide a basis for quality improvement interventions;
• Hip Hop Stroke, a socially innovative program that uses rap music as an engagement tool to educate schoolchildren to recognize the symptoms of stroke and understand the urgency of seeking immediate medical attention, and to adopt a healthy lifestyle to prevent stroke.