“Fun is the key to a successful fundraiser,” Thomas Weiss, an attorney with the law firm of Vishnick McGovern Milizio (VMM), said.
Weiss led the firm’s Texas hold ’em poker charity game on Friday, April 4, together with VMM teammates Jordan Freundlich, Phillip Hornberger, Lori La Salvia, Joseph Milizio, Joseph Trotti, Constantina Papageorgiou, Richard Apat, and Kristine Garcia-Elliott.
The event was held in support of Breakthrough T1D, the leading global type-1 diabetes research and advocacy organization, a cause Weiss has been involved with for years.
Dressed in a casino dealer’s blue velvet blazer and commanding the poker table with relaxed authority, some guests assumed he was a hired professional. But the tournament itself was anything but serious.
The game, which included 45 guests, many high-profile Long Island businesspersons, playing at 4 tables simultaneously — was casual and friendly. Guests didn’t even need to know how to play; Weiss and his fellow card sharks taught the game to those interested during cocktail hour.
Vishnick McGovern Milizio’s Long Island offices in Lake Success were transformed into a casino, replete with a catered buffet and posters explaining poker hands on the walls. Because law firms in New York can’t host real gambling activities, guests didn’t spend any money to play. The firm donated to Breakthrough T1D directly in the name of each attendee, with a special double “bounty” for each attorney taken out of the game (an endless source of lawyer jokes throughout the evening). Guests also donated to the charity themselves.
But players didn’t go home empty-handed. As a thank-you, each guest received as a memento a deck of poker cards and a magnet shaped like a poker chip reading “VMM — a safe bet since 1969.” It’s that kind of playfulness that Vishnick McGovern Milizio always tries to bring to their charity events, they said.
“We’re part of the Long Island community,” Joseph Milizio, Vishnick McGovern Milizio’s managing partner, said. “We serve our family, friends, and neighbors. We care. So, whether it’s pro bono work or supporting a charity, we put our heart into it. And as Tom said, we try to make it fun.”
Type-1 diabetes affects over 9.4 million people around the world and is one of the fastest-growing noncommunicable chronic health conditions on the planet. To support the cause, go to breakthrought1d.org/donate.
