Burgh Bits and Bites

We've been pleased to partner with Sylvia McCoy and her Burgh Bits and Bites tours, which offer a walking tour of Pittsburgh neighborhoods blending history, interesting facts and some delightful food along the way.  Sylvia's recently extended her tours to our North Side neighborhood, and we're proud to be one of the tour stops.

Here's an article from the North Side Chronicle about the new tour.

Lemons into LemonAid

We were very proud to have worked with one of our clients recently, Phil Laboon, who converted a canceled wedding into a remarkable charity event to raise funds for Surgicorps, an organization which provides surgical and other medical services to children in third world counties.  After some local media coverage, the story wen viral, hitting newspapers and TV stations across the country.  The event was a roaring success, due in no small part to the fantastic publicity that the event engendered.  We applaud Mr. Laboon for his generosity, and were very pleased to have worked with him on such a special project.

 Here's a summary of the event from Mr. Laboon's company, Eyeflow's, website.

Here's a sample of the coverage:

KDKA TV, Pittsburgh

WTAE TV, Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

WESA (National Public Radio), Pittsburgh

Huffington Post

KHON2 TV, Honolulu, HA

Versions of the story appeared in outlets from Florida to California to Chicago, IL

Team Tassy Blackjack Spectacular!

My wife Suzanne and I have in the past several years become active with the organization “Team Tassy,” a 501(c)(3) organization which helps families in the poorest slums of Port au Prince, Haiti get on their feet by providing them with health care, educational support, job training  and assistance with finding jobs.  The ultimate goal is to get families to a point where they have broken free of the cycle of poverty and are sustaining themselves.  With our daughter Laura, we  traveled to Port au Prince in October 2013, and we will be heading back again this October.  During our visit, we were blown away by the graciousness and friendliness of the families Team Tassy is helping, and by the strides those families are making with Team Tassy’s assistance.  Below is a picture of Laura with Michaelle,  a girl whom we “adopted.” 

On Thursday, October 23, 2014, Suzanne and I are hosting Team Tassy’s first evening fundraiser, the Team Tassy Blackjack Spectacular at our Grand Hall at the Priory.  The evening will feature  plenty of blackjack play (10 tables worth!), a routlette table for non blackjack players, live music, Haitian themed food and cocktails, and a chance to win some great prizes.  It’s a fun night for a great cause, and if you’re able to attend we would love to have you! 

General admission tickets are $50 apiece while VIP tickets are $100.  The VIP tickets feature access to an open bar and a special “Learn to Play Blackjack” cocktail hour.  The VIP party starts at 5:30 p.m., while the main event starts at 6:30 p.m.  Blackjack opens at 7:00 p.m.  Purchase tickets through Showclix here. 

Team Tassy was founded by former Survivor finalist Ian Rosenberger after he had ventured to Port au Prince after the catastrophic 2010 earthquake. While there, he met Tassy Fils Aime, a teenage boy with a huge, life threatening tumor on his jaw.  Ian promised Tassy that he would bring him to the U.S. to treat the tumor, and after months of fundraising was able to do just that.  In late 2010, Tassy underwent successful surgery at Allegheny General Hospital to remove the tumor, and is now a student at LaRoche College here in Pittsburgh.  Read more about Tassy and Ian here.   But Ian and his team also knew that the work was not done – that there were many people in Haiti continuing to suffer, and the root cause of that suffering is poverty.  So Team Tassy was founded to help families in the poorest slums in Haiti to break the cycle of poverty.  So far, Team Tassy has assisted hundreds of people stabilize their families, and helped place many family members into jobs which will, hopefully, permanently put them on the road a healthy and prosperous future.