FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JUNE 6, 2019 • BUZZ • THE QUEENS COURIER 75
Teeing off with the stars
vschneps@gmail.com
There they were! Geraldo
Rivera and Sean Hannity
kicking off the 32nd annual
Geraldo Rivera Golf Outing
for Life’s WORC, a group I
founded with friends in 1971.
It’s now a $60 million agency
that provides desperately needed
quality care homes and day programs
for people with disabilities
and in the autism spectrum,
as well as guidance
for their families.
I call Life’s WORC the
“Tiff any” of agencies! But
without fundraising dollars,
many of these services
would be challenged.
Geraldo has helped us
raise almost $20 million
these past few decades.
Our signature event is the
golf tournament that bears
his name.
He has brought along
his friends to support the
cause, as he did last week,
having Sean Hannity,
a Long Island resident,
cheer on our golfers and
pledge support.
Th e day of the golf outing
brought grey skies
and threatening rain clouds, but
before the “shotgun” start, the
golfers lined up with smiles as
big as the moon as they were
offi cially welcomed by celebrities
Geraldo and Sean Hannity. Th ey
told the golfers of their appreciation
for their support — a cause
that Geraldo has championed for
48 years!
I met Geraldo when Life’s
WORC members were marching
and picketing, protesting
the state cutbacks in funding
the Willowbrook State School
on Staten Island. My daughter
Lara was a resident in the
Infant Rehabilitation Center created
just a few years before. Lara
had turned blue in the hospital
nursery and suff ered irreparable
brain damage.
Wonderful women who lived
near me in Bayside urged me
to take action, and they helped
me form Life’s WORC to help
the other people who were Lara’s
friends.
We sent bus loads of volunteers
to Willowbrook each weekend
and ran fundraisers to buy
“extras” for the people living
there. When funding cuts came,
they all helped me by marching
and picketing to demand the
restoration of the funds that had
slashed staff and threatened the
lives of many of the helpless residents.
Geraldo, then a cub reporter
with WABC-TV, knew a doctor
working at Willowbrook
who literally snuck him, in the
dark of night, into the buildings
aft er that the administration
had blocked his visit. What
he saw shocked him and his sensitive
powerful coverage shocked
our city.
Geraldo and I had met during
his multiple visits and news
reports and he oft en called on
Vanessa Rogan, Lynne Koufakis, Rick Ritacco, Tariq Khan, John Murn, Justin Resnick, Geraldo, Peter Resnick
& Mike Billia
me and my late husband
Murray for comment
on our struggle.
His shocking,
revealing coverage,
along with reporting
by Jane Curtin
from the Staten Island
Advance newspaper,
made our story
known to the whole
city. It propelled the
Willowbrook Parents
Association to join
Murray and I in fi ling
a federal class action
lawsuit. Winning the
case changed forever how people
with special needs get services.
Flashback to this past week,
and Geraldo’s continuing concern
and care for Life’s WORC
make him my hero! It’s my hope
that Sean Hannity’s support of
our organization will enable us
to name a group home in his
honor, thanks to his fi nancial
commitment. You don’t have to
love his politics but a good heart
is always worth recognizing!
Th e weather didn’t stop it from
being a beautiful day, with more
than 200 people joining forces
to help raise desperately needed
funds for our Family Center for
Autism and Life’s WORC programs
at the golf tournament
and dinner.
VICTORIA’S
SECRETS
Victoria
SCHNEPSYUNIS
tweet me @vschneps
Enough is enough!
When will it stop?
Aft er yet another
deadly mass shooting,
this time in Virginia
Beach on May 31, it’s time that
something be done to stop
sick people from acquiring
guns to kill innocent people.
I just don’t understand why
our country can’t pass laws to
stop assault weapons of war
from being sold. Th e bullets
being sold for those guns could
be stopped.
Keep your Congressmen and
U.S. Senators aware that you,
too, are fed up! New York state
may have “better” laws than
other states, but we need to keep
the pressure on for a national
act similar to laws passed in
New Zealand just one week aft er
they experienced massacres earlier
this year.
May the families in Virginia
Beach who suff ered shocking
loss fi nd the courage to carry on!
It’s dance recital season and my granddaughters
performed gloriously.
Geraldo Rivera and
Sean Hannity
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