Arts & Entertainment
WMCHealth’s Girls Night Out Honors Heart Disease Survivors
Fundraiser for WMCHealth draws more than 400 and honors Elizabeth Bracken Thompson as Community Champion.
VALHALLA NY - (March 19, 2024) – Girls’ Night Out, a heartwarming evening featuring tributes to heart disease survivors and their caregivers, was held at The Sleepy Hollow Hotel in Tarrytown. WCBS-TV news anchor Mary Calvi emceed the event with proceeds benefiting the Westchester Medical Center Health Network’s (WMCHealth)
new five-story Critical Care Tower now under construction. A sellout crowd of over 400 attended.
Foundation Board member Elizabeth Bracken Thompson received the WMCHealth Foundation’s 1st Community Champion Award. Bracken-Thompson is a partner with the award-winning public relations firm of Thompson & Bender in Briarcliff Manor and a long time WMCHealth supporter. The evening also included dining, dancing and a videotaped fashion show featuring healthcare providers and patients modeling fashions from fashion designer Beverley Olivacce, the event’s exclusive fashion partner. Other sponsors included Macy’s; Cross County Shopping Center and M&T Bank.Heart disease is still the number one killer of women in the United States, causing 1 in 3 deaths or approximately one every minute.
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Gabbie Fried, RN, Vice President of Cardiovascular Services with WMCHealth’s Heart & Vascular Institute said that 80 percent of heart diseases and strokes are preventable.
“Through education and screening and by developing a personalized plan to reduce risk factors and encourage exercise and healthy eating, our Cardiovascular Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Program works to head off potential heart problems. The program has seen successful results, and we are seeing more patients than last year,’’ she said.
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This year’s fashion show featured patients that included Jake Amoroso, a New York Police Department officer, whose successful surgery allowed him to become a member of the force, 15-year-old Mia Santana who came here from the Dominican Republic with her mother to undergo lifechanging heart repair, and young siblings Gabriel (8) and Rei (4), who received treatment for congenital heart issues.
Additional information on these incredible heart stories can be found on the Westchester Medical Center Foundation website where community members can also donate to support heart care in Westchester County and the Hudson Valley.
About Westchester Medical Center Health Network
The Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth) is a 1,700-bed healthcare system headquartered in Valhalla, New York, with nine hospitals on seven campuses spanning 6,200 square miles of the Hudson Valley. WMCHealth employs more than 13,000 people and has nearly 3,000 attending physicians. The Network has Level I (adult and pediatric), Level II and Level III trauma centers, the region’s only acute care children’s hospital, an academic medical center, several community hospitals, dozens of specialized institutes and centers, Comprehensive and Primary Stroke Centers, skilled nursing, assisted living facilities, home-care services and one of the largest mental health systems in New York State. Today, WMCHealth is the pre-eminent provider of integrated health care in the Hudson Valley. For more information about WMCHealth, visit or follow WMCHealth on###a href="http://www.facebook.com/wmchealth"> Facebook.com/WMCHealth or Instagram.com/WMCHealth.
