Please Join The Lake Drive Foundation

 Thursday, May16 6:00-10:00PM

The Villa, Mountain Lakes, NJ

To Benefit The Lake Drive Sound Start Program

For Babies Who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Honoring Donna Sorkin

Advocate for Children with Hearing Loss

Donna Sorkin is an international leader at the forefront of a technological revolution that is transforming the lives of thousands of children who are hearing impaired:  cochlear implantation. As Executive Director of the American Cochlear Implant Alliance Foundation (ACI) and earlier with both Alexander Graham Bell Association and the Hearing Loss Association of America, Sorkin has advanced access to this new technology through research, advocacy and awareness.  Most recently, as VicePresident, Consumer Affairs for Cochlear Americas, she created the highly regarded HOPE program to educate and support professionals who work with children with cochlear implants.  HOPE is now used by graduate programs impacting hearing impaired children worldwide.  Join us in honoring this dedicated professional.

For Information about Sponsorship or to Donate to the Auction 

Contact Lauri Masur, CDK Events Management, Inc.

lauri@cdkevents.com      973-696-3783

 For the Babies Gala Sponsorship Opportunities

Presenting Sponsor:  $20,000 

Sponsor four children for a year in The Sound Start Program

[Name on invitation, 20 seats, Name/logo on all printed/video materials inc. website, event recognition]

Platinum Sponsor:  $15,000

Sponsor three children for a year in The Sound Start Program

[Name on invitation, 12 seats, Name/logo on all printed/video materials inc. website, event recognition]

Gold Sponsor:  $10,000

Sponsor two children for a year in The Sound Start Program

[Name on invitation, 10 seats, Name/logo on all printed/video materials incl. website, event recognition]

Silver Sponsor:  $5,000

Sponsor one child for a year in The Sound Start Program

[Name on invitation, 10 seats, Name on all printed/video materials incl. website, event recognition]

Bronze Sponsor:  $2,500

[10 seats, Name on all printed/video materials incl. website, event recognition]

Tickets:  Corporate – $1,000 (incl. 2); Individual:  $150 per person

The Lake Drive Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) corporation. Tax ID# 22-3473606.

Thank you to our generous Event Sponsors!

Doug Brown & Helen Liu                                     Joyce & Bill Leuchten

                            Stephanie & Russell Deyo                                   Laura & Edward McKirdy

Lake Drive Programs Honored as Healthcare Hero,

Wins Education Hero-Organization Category

Michele Klimovitch and Trish Filiaci accept Award

The Healthcare Heroes awards program recognizes excellence and innovation and honors individuals and organizations making a significant impact on the quality of healthcare in New Jersey. Finalists were selected from more than 100 nominations statewide in eleven categories: Corporate Achievement, Education Hero-Individual, Education Hero-Organization, Hospital of the Year, Innovation Hero-Individual, Innovation Hero-Organization, Nurse of the Year, Nursing Home/Assisted Living Facility of the Year, Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Center of the Year, Physician of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.

Finalists and winners were chosen by an independent panel of judges including: Donald J. Cinotti, MD, Medical Society of NJ; David Knowlton, New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute and D.N. Lombardi, Ph.D., USMC®.

The Education category recognizes individuals and organizations making a difference in health education either in the community or the industry. Other finalists in the Education Organization Category included The Armenian American Health Professionals Organization in Far Hills; Liberty Science Center in Jersey City; Lutheran Social Ministries of New Jersey – Lutheran Senior LIFE at Jersey City; and The Meridian Health Pawsitive Action Team in Neptune. 

The Lake Drive Programs for Children Who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing received the top award in the category for the wide-ranging health and educational services the school provides to hearing impaired children and their families. Lake Drive offers New Jersey’s most comprehensive continuum of educational opportunities for children with hearing loss from birth to high school graduation.  The team of specialists includes teachers of the deaf, speech and language pathologists, pediatric audiologists, physical and occupational therapists, clinical social workers, psychologists, and dysphagia experts offering the only eating and drinking skills program in a public school setting in New Jersey.

“We provide whatever programming is needed to help prepare our students to lead independent, fulfilling lives,” explains Trish Filiaci, Principal of The Lake Drive Programs.

“Each student has very individualized needs.  We tailor our programs to maximize each child’s potential.  Over the years we have been able to watch our students develop into adults with meaningful careers and promising futures.”

Graduates have gone into medicine, dentistry, finance, the hi-tech industry, teaching, social work, graphic design and other fields.  They’ve competed in the World Games, volunteered with Holocaust survivors, and taught sign language in third world countries.

Founded in 1969, Lake Drive has transformed the lives of more than 1,000 students from northern and central New Jersey who are deaf and hard of hearing.  While New Jersey’s high school dropout rate is 17%, and the national average for students with hearing loss who do not receive high school diplomas is 50%, Lake Drive’s graduation rate is 100%. 

Technological advances such as cochlear implants have dramatically changed the way Lake Drive addresses the educational programming for students. 

“Cochlear implants have revolutionized educational opportunities for children who are deaf, but they are not a miracle cure, explains Michele Klimovitch, Supervisor of Programs. It takes intensive therapy, especially in the first three years of life to teach a child how to listen, hear and speak.”  

The award reflects the emphasis Lake Drive puts on early intervention.  Lake Drive’s Sound Start Early Intervention Program is the most intensive in the state, with a full day inclusive program for toddlers 18 months through 3 years old.  In Ivy Nursery, toddlers with and without hearing loss learn side by side in a specially created environment to enhance auditory learning. Designed to take full advantage of the developing brain, Ivy Nursery focuses on language, communication and literacy skills, physical health, well-being and motor development, social and emotional development, cognition in logic and reasoning, creative arts, math and science, family, community and culture. Families attend an education series to build their parenting confidence and reinforce their child’s learning.

Healthcare Heroes, produced by NJBIZ, New Jersey’s premiere business news publication, is sponsored by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, Hackensack University Medical Center, New Jersey Hospital Association, NJTopDocs.com and WithumSmith+Brown, PC.

For more information about The Lake Drive Programs call 973-299-0166 or visit www.lakedriveprograms.org.

Kiwanis Wine Tasting Event Raises $9,000 for Sound Start Program

Last October the Kiwannis Club of Greater Parsippany hosted their Annual Grand Tasting for 280 guests at the Villa in Mountain Lakes benefitting The Lake Drive Foundation.  “It’s a pleasure for guests to come to a wonderful event like this and know that it supports a wonderful cause,” shared Grand Tasting Chair, Michael Mulhaul. “I learned about The Lake Drive School and Foundation two years ago and it has become a charity that is very dear to me.”  The Kiwanis Club Foundation donated $9,000 from the highly successful

event to support The Sound Start Program. Special thanks to the Liquor Outlet Wine Cellars in Boonton for organizing more than 300 varieties of fine wine, beer and spirits.

Hoop-a-Paluza Basketball Event Nets $20,000 for Sound Start Program

A carnival, prizes, DJ, tons of free food and basketball brought together fundraisers and beneficiaries for a unique afternoon to raise funds for eleven children’s charities in New Jersey and New York.

On Sunday, December  5, Lake Drive staff and students were among the 600 participants at the 9th annual Hoop-a-Paluza at the Millburn High School gym, an event that netted more than $200,000 for the HAPI Foundation, a non-profit based in Essex County. This was the second year The Lake Drive Foundation was selected as a beneficiary of the event and funding will support the Sound Start Program.

For Lake Drive children, meeting NBA player, Darryl Dawkins, known as” Chocolate Thunder” was without a doubt, the highlight of the day.

Hoop-A-Paluza has come a long way since it began in HAPI founder Edward Zimmerman's back yard in 2002, raising more than $2.5 million in nine years. "I wanted to give back to the community by doing something with my kids," Zimmerman said about coming up with the idea of Hoop-A-Paluza.. Zimmerman couldn't have thought of a better way to have kids connect and raise awareness about giving back than through a fun event like Hoop-A-Paluza.