Filling the Veterans Gap
What are the costs of war? What happens to those who come back from war, and what happens to their families? And how about the families of those who die overseas?
Those are the kinds of issues that interest many in the securities industry. So they recently raised a lot of money for veterans and their families in one day in New York by renting the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. They wanted to show their gratitude for the efforts of all veterans, whose sacrifices make freedom possible, said Omar Itum of Avesta Capital Advisors, one of the co-chairmen of the Wounded Warriors Family Support Initiative.
“I decided to launch this initiative because of my upbringing overseas,” Itum said. “I grew up in a part of the world where people’s lives were dictated by the whims of dictators, and in which the most basic human rights and freedoms-which I believed then and continue to believe are universal-were suppressed to the greatest possible extent.” He added that it would have been “hypocritical” not to launch this initiative, because veterans have done so much for our nation.
The event was actually put together on the fly over a period of a few months and it still raised $1 million, said event spokeswoman Grace Helfrich. “That was absolutely amazing,” she said.
The event, she said, raised so much money because there was so much support from Wall Street, including buyside firms. Among the brokers involved were Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, Knight, BTIG, BMO Capital Markets, Cantor Fitzgerald, Credit Suisse, Wedbush Securities and Robert W. Baird, just to name a few.
Nevertheless, Helfrich and her colleagues are not satisfied and vow to make the fund-raiser a yearly event.
“Omar wants to take this to the next level. We’re going to do it again next year at the Intrepid, and we’ll raise much more money,” she said.
“Our work has just begun,” Itum said.
Where does the money go?
Wounded Warriors Family Support was founded by Marine Corps Col. John Folsom in 2003. He noticed that so many injured veterans from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were being jammed into a U.S military hospital near Stuttgart, Germany. He saw that its facilities were becoming overtaxed.
“They were crowded into the psychiatric ward on cots,” he said.
The veterans were receiving “the best medical care” for their physical injuries, Folsom believed. But he also believed that much more could and should be done for them and their loved ones. These brave men and women, along with their families, needed help with morale, Folsom said. They needed help with the difficult job of readjusting after combat time, and they also deserved to enjoy the comforts of home.
“I passed the hat around and decided to buy them a big-screen TV,” Folsom said.
After his initial success, Folsom decided to start Wounded Warriors Family Support, an organization that seeks to fill the gaps not filled by the government.
“Our mission,” Folsom said, “is to provide support to the families of soldiers who have been wounded, injured or killed during combat operations. The families of our casualties suffer in many ways-some financially, some psychologically.”
Itum pledged to honor these vets. “They fight for us, and they fight so that we may enjoy the freedoms that so many others have never known,” he said.
One way Col. Folsom’s group tries to help families reunite and heal is through its resort condominium in Orlando, Fla. The families stay at the condominium free of charge. It is a place, Folsom said, that provides a stress-free environment.
Wounded Warriors Family Support Inititative
Co-Chairs:
Omar Itum, Avesta Capital Advisors
Derek Wallis, Wounded Warriors Family Support Initiative Co-Chairman,
The Planning and Executive Committee :
Chris Aracamone, OTR Global
Mark Pfeiffer, Avian Securities
Stefan Kahandaliyanage, Moody’s
David Vroubel, CCM Securities/BlueFin
Kevin McKenna, FBR Capital Markets
Ryan Cournoyer, Global Hunter
Khalid Itum, KHANNECT
Kabir Singh, Avesta Capital Advisors
Grace Helfrich, Pelican Studios
GOAL Becomes More Important
A program founded in East Harlem by trading industry pros to help kids who are falling behind in school and in danger of dropping out is now vital.
That’s because state and city programs, such as music education and after-school tutoring, are being cut back, says one trading pro.
“It is a difficult time for many urban schools, even in good areas,” said Jeff Kaplan, a longtime trader with Deerfield Partners and the co-founder of Giving Open Access to Learning (GOAL). Kaplan was joined in his efforts by Lisa Kelly, a veteran trading pro who was also instrumental in founding GOAL. Kaplan and Kelly have done much to keep their organization a key one that helps kids who are struggling in school.
So Kaplan is happy to announce that GOAL’s programs in East Harlem at P.S. 171 will be expanding this year, thanks to the generosity of its donors. About 60 more kids will be able to participate in the school’s weekday and weekend programs, raising the number of students in the program to some 175.
“This program is about trying to make a difference; it’s about trying to correct some of the inequities and injustices these kids face,” Kaplan said. “It’s really about helping kids with almost any kind of problem they face.” He noted that GOAL offers kids all kinds of support, on everything from health issues to math to the arts.
Today, going to a public school in the city, GOAL officials note, often means not having the ability to enjoy the arts. Many public schools no longer have art courses, Kaplan said, and GOAL aims to fill the gaps.
“Music is the first thing that can get cut,” said Bryan Powell, executive director of GOAL and a former music teacher.
Even as Kaplan, Kelly, and Powell work with GOAL to give kids a better chance to succeed, they also believe that even the kids they’re helping can give back. Kaplan, who is working on another charity to save people’s lives in Uganda by providing purified water, is proud that many of the GOAL kids are now working with him on the project.
“It’s quite a thing to see these kids working at a car wash to help on that project,” he said. And Powell added, “These kids appreciate that life would be very hard if they didn’t have clean water.”
GOAL Board of Directors
Howard Clyman- Friends of the Children of New York
Joan Horton- The Horton Group
Jeffrey Kaplan- Deerfield Management
Bryan Kievit- Accipiter Capital Management
Lisa Kelly- BTIG, LLC
Larry Litoff- City-as-School
Rob Shapiro- Bloomberg
Patti Binder
Spreading Around the Help
There are many ways to make the world a better place. Some trading firms help by dedicating themselves to one cause or charity. But that’s not how Big Board officials do it.
The exchange makes a difference, they believe, by making a substantial contribution to a number of organizations, instead of a million dollars or more to just one.
NYSE Euronext doesn’t have the deep pockets of big banks, says CEO Duncan Niederauer, chairman of the NYSE Euronext Foundation. But it wants to help a lot of charitable groups, he notes. So last year, according to the annual foundation report, NYSE Euronext gave $2.032 million to 43 organizations.
“We find groups in which a $50,000 contribution will make a big difference,” Niederauer said. He also said that, because the foundation is vetting so many different groups, it requires that Euronext/NYSE officials become personally involved.
“It is more spiritually fulfilling than just writing a check,” he said. Niederauer has been an angel to numerous charities through the foundation, which helps dozens of charities each year in three areas: children’s health, veterans and financial literacy.
“Financial literacy is a natural for us,” said Niederauer. Beneficiaries of the grants included the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, BizWorld Foundation, Junior Achievement of New York and the Council for Economic Education.
But a special interest for Niederauer is autism. He has an autistic son, Liam. The child, he said, “has his good days and bad.” Last year the foundation gave $50,000 to Autism Speaks.
Besides his work with Euronext and its charitable foundation, Niederauer-who apparently sleeps very little-is also on the board of Autim Speaks. He is personally involved in helping to raise funds for and build a state-of-the-art facility for autistic children in Scotch Plains, N.J.
“We believe this will be a model school. It will be a school in which children with autism will have access to life skills. It will also be a place where teachers can learn more about working with autistic children,” Niederauer said.
The school, he added, should be ready in the fall of 2013.
NYSE Euronext Foundation
Duncan L. Niederauer, Chairman
Michelle D. Greene, Executive Director
Andrew T. Brandman
Arthur D. Cashin, Jr.
Dominique Cerutti
Claudia Crowley
Michael S. Geltzeiler
Richard A. Genna
Lawrence E. Leibowitz
Janet McGinness
Jeffrey S. Reymann
Marisa Ricciardi
Richard A. Rosenblatt
Daniel W. Tandy
Peter F. Lallos, Jr. Assistant Controller
