Huntington Opens its Arms
On a cold rainy night, the Huntington community opened it arms and embraced those living with AIDS thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean. It isn’t often that a person can help save the life of another, but that’s exactly what the third annual benefit for Hope Through Health was all about.
The organization provides medical and psychosocial services to the poverty stricken population of Togo in West Africa. A crowd of more than 100 turned out for the benefit at the Huntington Yacht Club. Many of those in attendance were Huntington High School alumni with a special connection to HTH Executive Director Jennifer Schechter (Huntington, Class of 2000).
The evening included a silent auction where the local Huntington business community’s generosity was put on vivid display. Even during the current swirling economic storm, community companies opened their hearts and donated an array of items that were auctioned to raise funds for HTH’s community-directed HIV initiative.
The crowd included Ms. Schechter’s Blue Devil lacrosse coach Mary Paar and her husband Mark and daughter Sarah, who handled various administrative tasks at the benefit. There were current Huntington school faculty members, a district trustee, friends and former classmates and teammates.
More than $20,000 had been raised during the course of the evening. “The benefit was an incredible success,” said Ms. Schecther, a former Peace Corps volunteer and Georgetown University graduate. “It means a lot to me to have the support of the Town of Huntington and its residents.”
Local businesses contributed more than four dozen auction items. Participation in the benefit spanned the generations as J. Taylor Finley Middle School students Sara Totura
Hailey Giordano, Jesse Feldman-Stein and Sara Lockwood formed a string quartet and played a variety of soothing selections during the evening. They are studying under Huntington music teacher Deborah Kim.
Some in the crowd were moved to tears when a short film was played describing HTH’s activities and lifting the veil on the experiences of one family in Togo. Ms. Schechter, who was accompanied to the event by Kevin Fiori, Jr., her fiancé and HTH’s founder, is studying for a graduate degree at the University of Washington. Mr. Fiori is enrolled in medical school there.
As if to underscore how much those in attendance believed in the cause, 20 minutes after the benefit was scheduled to end, the crowd was still filling the room at Huntington Yacht Club.
For more information about Hope Though Health visit www.hthglobal.org.
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