March of Dimes salutes Stamford Hospital

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More than 700 people rallied to the Hilton Stamford Hotel recently for the March of Dimes Fairfield County 2014 Real Estate Award Breakfast, which this year honored Stamford Hospital and the hospital”™s pediatric program, the Cohen Children”™s Institute.

Title sponsors included Stamford-based The Ashforth Co. and A.P. Construction, also with offices in White Plains, N.Y., and Oregon; Stamford-based Building and Land Technology; and Stamford Hospital and the Cohen Children”™s Institute. The hospital and its pediatric program and Ashforth also joined Stamford-based real estate company Reckson ”” SL Green Realty Corp. as “Fund the Mission” sponsors.

In its 19 years, the event has raised a total $6 million toward the pediatric and premature-birth healing missions of the March of Dimes.

Ed Tonnessen, executive managing director at Jones Lang LaSalle in Stamford, connected the medical and real estate dots, saying of the $450 million Stamford Hospital expansion due for completion in 2016, “For us real estate people, it”™s the high-rise in town.”

The event had all the trappings of a successful annual gathering, but the gravity of the cause and the stories involved had many wiping away tears. Parents Scott and Jamie Krugg told such a tale: A premature newborn. A stroke. Emergency transport. The stuff of life and death. And an army of people at Stamford Hospital, the March of Dimes and beyond who helped.

Young Julian Fiore, son of David Fiore, principal at Marcus Partners Metro New York office, assisted his father during the raffle by tapping into the event”™s evident good karma. Julian”™s brother, Francis, benefitted from March of Dimes work. Julian acknowledged a tincture of sibling friction with Francis, but he needled and pleaded and raised nearly $50,000 from the raffle.