LECOM's Casino Night Fundraiser draws in hundreds
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ELMIRA, N.Y. (WENY) -- LECOM (Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine) hosted its second Casino Night Fundraiser at the Elmira Country Club Saturday evening. Hundreds of people came out to donate to a local scholarship fund.
"Tonight is about the LECOM Elmira Scholarship Fundraiser, and this is our Casino Night where we raise money for our students to offset the cost of their medical education. We should have about 215 (people), we actually sold about 311 tickets, but a lot of people donated and weren't able to attend. Soit’s a record number for us," said Dean of the Elite Elmira Campus, Dr. Richard Terry.
The evening included a dinner, raffles, silent auctions, and of course Casino Night. "It’s very real but it’s not real money. It's chips and it’s a fundraiser obviously. The only people that win are our students…every single cent we raise goes back to them in our scholarship fund. The last four years we’ve given away about four million dollars. Last year, we raised about $100,000, this year we’ve already hit around $150,000," said Dr. Terry.
Roughly 40 students received a scholarship and Claire Deangeli was one of them. Deangeli is a third year med student who wants to pursue a career in emergency medicine. She said having people donate to the scholarship, means a lot to her. "Med school is an expensive endeavor, so any additional scholarships are really helpful.It's so important and so meaningful that the community is donating to us because we all kind of hope to further the medical field here in Elmira. Many people hope to stay in the area and many people hope to stay here and continue their practice after they graduate," said Deangeli.
Like many people, Deangeli wanted to become a doctor to help people. She said she really wants to make an impact on her community, and Starlyn Batista is one of her peers who wants to do that too.
Batista is a first year med student who said he wanted to become a doctor because when he was younger, his mom would have a lot of doctor's appointments. He said he saw disparities in how she was treated because she didn't speak the same language as her doctors. "That's one thing that drove me to this career because I want to be a voice for those people who don't have one," said Batista.
Batista said it means the world (to him) that people would come out and donate and "help us out in anyway they can." "I hope to repay the favor by being a great physician and helping out people in return," said Batista.
