South Nassau’s New ‘Soirée Under the Stars’ Raises $637,000 - Most Successful Event in Hospital’s History

Jeffrey Feil, Real Estate Developer, Healthcare Philanthropist; Renowned Cancer Surgeon, Rajiv Datta, MD & 40-year Nurse Leader Lori Edelman, RN, Honored for Their Dedication and Commitment to South Nassau’s Mission

With a late summer sky overhead, some 540 supporters of South Nassau Communities Hospital attended the Hospital’s new Soirée Under the Stars at the Crest Hollow Country Club and raised more than $637,000 for the hospital’s Emergency Department Expansion Campaign, making it the most successful fundraiser of its kind in the nearly 100-year history of the hospital.

The poolside gathering honored Jeffrey Feil, real estate developer, healthcare philanthropist; Rajiv Datta, MD, South Nassau’s Chief of Surgery and Lori Edelman, RN, Director of Patient Care Services.

South Nassau administrators, board members and medical staff members, as well as many of the region’s healthcare executives, state and local public officials and business and community leaders were among the hundreds of guests who attended the Soirée, which was held Saturday, September 16, at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury.

Due to the generosity of many local business and individual sponsors, the event raised a gross total of $760,020 (a net of $637,805) in support of the expansion campaign, realizing a net increase of 8 percent over last year’s gala.

Proceeds from the Soiree go toward a five-year, $10 million fundraising initiative to help support a $60 million renovation and expansion of the Oceanside Emergency Department. The Emergency Department currently sees some 65,000 patients a year, but was designed to handle just 35,000 annually.  When completed, the expansion and modernization project will nearly double the size of the Emergency Department in Oceanside to the size of a football field, allowing South Nassau to better service residents of the South Shore who depend upon it daily. South Nassau’s Emergency Department in Oceanside is the only Trauma Center on the South Shore of Nassau County. It is projected to treat up to 80,000 patients in the coming years.



Left to Right: Richard J. Murphy, president and CEO of South Nassau; Lori Edelman, RN; Joseph Fennessy, Chairman of South Nassau’s Board of Directors and Rajiv Datta, MD.

Mr. Feil served as this year’s honoree, while Dr. Datta and Ms. Edelman were presented with the hospital’s Mary Pearson and Cupola awards, respectively. “Jeffrey Feil has been a long standing supporter of South Nassau. We are very grateful for his continued commitment to the hospital and for his ongoing interest in insuring that the best of care is available to South Shore residents right here at home,” said Richard J. Murphy, president and CEO of South Nassau. “Lori Edelman and Dr. Datta are two of our most dedicated leaders at South Nassau who are always looking out for the best for patients. They are well deserving of this recognition.”

Mr. Feil, a long-time resident of Rockville Centre, is a respected metro area real estate developer and philanthropist whose family has had a transformative impact on South Nassau in expanding and elevating the standard of cancer care for South Nassau’s patients. The Feil family has donated more than $6 million to South Nassau in the past several years.  This includes a $3 million donation to South Nassau in the spring of 2011 that supported the continued growth and expansion of the hospital’s Gertrude & Louis Feil Cancer Center, located in Valley Stream.  In December 2016, the Charitable Lead Annuity Trust under the will of Louis Feil, donated $1 million toward a new consolidated cancer center being planned at the hospital’s Oceanside campus. One of Long Island’s premiere providers of compassionate advanced cancer care, the Center treats more than 1,500 patients annually with leading-edge cancer treatment technologies.

South Nassau’s Mary Pearson Award is presented annually to an individual for extraordinary effort and individual contributions that significantly advance South Nassau’s commitment to compassionate care and standard setting healthcare services.  Since joining South Nassau in 2001 as director of Surgical Oncology/Head & Neck Surgery, Dr. Datta, MBA, FACS, FRCS, FICS, of Muttontown, NY, has earned a global reputation for leadership and surgical innovation. Today, he also serves as chair of the Department of Surgery and medical director of the Gertrude & Louis Feil Cancer Center.



540 supporters of South Nassau Communities Hospital attended South Nassau's Soirée Under the Stars at the Crest Hollow Country Club.

His exceptional skills are evidenced by his education, recognition in the field of surgery and by a strong patient following. He has the unusual distinction of holding three fellowships – from the International College of Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Surgeons. Under Dr. Datta’s leadership, the Gertrude & Louis Feil Cancer Center has been equipped with three of the most effective technologies used to treat and eradicate cancer: the Varian Novalis Tx™, daVinci® Surgical System and Gamma Knife® Perfextion.

South Nassau established the Cupola Award in 2015 to be presented annually to a deserving hospital employee who goes above and beyond their duties and lives by the hospital mission to promote excellence in healthcare.  Ms. Edelman, RN, CEN, NE-BC, of Long Beach, NY, the 2017 recipient of the award, has worked with South Nassau for 30 years. She has demonstrated unflappable, focused leadership in overseeing patient care services – not only in her decades of service at the hospital’s Oceanside Emergency Department, but since it opened in 2015, at the hospital’s Emergency Department in Long Beach, Long Island’s only free-standing emergency department, which has seen over 20,000 patients.  In addition to her duties in the Emergency Departments, Ms. Edelman also has a leadership role on three of the hospital’s medical-surgical units.

The Soiree introduced a new format this year with a two hour outdoor reception followed by an hour of Broadway quality entertainment. Guests overwhelmingly embraced the new approach, helping to make it the most successful fundraising event in SNCH history. Board members and Soiree Co-Chairmen Tony Cancellieri and Wayne Lipton, helped reorganize the event, bringing it to a new level.



Broadway stars Howard McGillin, Cady Huffman, Alexa Green and Erich Bergen showcased their Broadway talent at South Nassau's first Soirée Under the Stars!

“We are very grateful to Mr. Cancellieri and Mr. Lipton for lending us their guidance and expertise to help make the Soiree a memorable evening that also raised an unprecedented sum for our capital campaign,” said Joe Calderone, South Nassau’s Senior Vice President of Communications & Development.

Designated a Magnet® hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) for outstanding nursing care, South Nassau® Communities Hospital is one of the region’s largest hospitals, with 455 beds, more than 900 physicians and 3,500 employees.  Located in Oceanside, NY, the hospital is an acute-care, not-for-profit teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac, oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain management, mental health and emergency services.

In addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, South Nassau provides emergency and elective angioplasty, and offers Novalis Tx™ and Gamma Knife® radiosurgery technologies.  South Nassau operates the only Trauma Center on the South Shore of Nassau County verified by the American College of Surgeons as well as Long Island’s only free-standing, 9-1-1 receiving Emergency Department in Long Beach. South Nassau also is a designated Stroke Center by the New York State Department of Health and Comprehensive Community Cancer Center by the American College of Surgeons, and is an accredited center of the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Association and Quality Improvement Program.
 
In addition, the hospital has been awarded the Joint Commission’s gold seal of approval for disease-specific care for hip and knee replacement, heart failure, bariatric surgery, wound care and end-stage renal disease. For more information, visit www.southnassau.org.