The Ring Masters Championships Boxing Fundraiser Benefits Kids Need More
Hundreds turned out on Saturday, March 11 for The Ring Masters Championships at the Freeport Rec Center. This boxing event featured local boxers who may go on to the Golden Gloves finals at MSG.
The event also served as a fundraiser for Kids Need More, a local 501(c)(3) grassroots charity helping children and families coping with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.
Kids Need More board member, Mitch Kraeling of Island Electric Corp, who lost his son to cancer and is bravely fighting his own battle with cancer, still found the time and energy to connect everyone to make this fundraiser possible. When he approached his friend Joseph Higgins, who runs the Freeport PAL Boxing program about doing the fundraiser, Higgins enthusiastically jumped right in to help make it happen with Sonya Lamonakis, of USA Boxing Metro.
Kraeling and his friends at the NBC hit show, George to the Rescue, worked together to completely rebuild and expand the gym at the Freeport PAL so that local kids would have a safe and positive environment to train which kept many of them off the streets channeling their energies toward a constructive goal.
Even with all his own health issues to contend with, Kraeling was not content to stop there. He called upon one of Higgins’ friends from the gym, Nick Marchese of Express Construction, who put together a group of local business owners to support the event and cover all of the expenses associated with the fundraiser.
Along with his own company, Marchese was able to enlist the generous support of GGS Consulting & Management Corp., Mark Anthony Architecture & Design, Margin Electric, ALB Stars Contractors, Kenco Designs, Pappas & Fodera Electric, and Beacon Flooring.
The money raised at the boxing fundraiser will support free camps, special events, holiday wishes, and other programs for children battling the same type of diseases that the Kraeling family is all too familiar with.
To learn more about Kids Need More, visit kidsneedmore.org or contact 631-608-3135 or info@kidsneedmore.org.
