Lifestyle
American Legacy Foundation® Honors
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Mar 5, 2008 - 4:52:58 PM

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - The fifth annual American Legacy Foundation® Honors event will take place on Monday, March 10, 2008 at The Pierre hotel. The gala will benefit the Foundation’s many valuable programs and campaigns that educate the public about the deadly toll of tobacco, help youth never to start smoking, and provide resources and tools for adults who need help quitting smoking.

American Legacy Foundation Honors pays tribute to leaders in business, entertainment, government, media and public health that are helping Legacy make the dream of a tobacco-free world a reality. This year’s honorees include:

Bill Novelli, CEO of AARP and former President and current Chairman of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Novelli will receive the Public Service Award.

Claudia Henschke will receive the Humanitarian in Medicine and Public Health Award. Ms. Henschke, Ph.D., M.D., F.C.C.P., is Chief of Chest Imaging, Professor of Radiology, Department of Radiology, New York Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Thomas H. Peterson MD will receive the Community Activist Award. Dr. Peterson is Medical Director, Quality, Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital and Medical Director, Healthier Communities, Spectrum Health.

The festivities for this black tie gala begin at 6:30 PM. April Wilkner, former contestant on America’s Next Top Model is this year’s host. Presenters include Deborah Morosini, MD, Jason Meza and Thomas R. Frieden, MD, MPH, Commissioner of NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene. Support levels are as follows: Tables for $100,000, $50,000, $25,000, $15,000, $10,000 and $5,000. Individual tickets are available for $2,500, $1,000, $500. $400 non-profit tickets are also available (limit 4 per organization). Sonya Robinson, former Miss Black America, will give a special performance on the electric violin.

Founded in 1999, the American Legacy Foundation’s mission is to build a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. The foundation has two goals: to arm all young people with the tools and knowledge to reject tobacco and to eliminate disparities in access to tobacco prevention and cessation services.

The Foundation has developed national programs that address the health effects of tobacco use. They have accomplished this through grants, technical training and assistance, youth activism, strategic partnerships, counter-marketing and grass roots marketing campaigns – including the truth® youth smoking prevention campaign, public relations, research and community outreach to populations disproportionately affected by tobacco-related disease.

Currently, 45 million Americans smoke and 70% report that they want to quit. The American Legacy Foundation seeks to provide them with the necessary tools and support to do so successfully. The American Legacy Foundation was created as a result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories, and the tobacco industry. Visit www.americanlegacy.org.

For Gala information contact the American Legacy Foundation Benefit Office at (212) 843-1718, fax to (212) 843-1730 or e-mail at americanlegacy@hgnyc.com.

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