It's a birthday, it's a Kiwanis event — it's, well, amazing!
Oct 15, 2012 @ 07:16 PM
Irondequoit Kiwanis held a somewhat unusual installation dinner in a pavilion at the Seneca Park Zoo this past Saturday evening, Oct. 13.
Vinnie Esposito, an Irondequoit resident and Deputy Regional Director of Empire State Development’s Finger Lakes Regional Office in Rochester, was installed as the president of Irondequoit Kiwanis for the coming year, as were his fellow officers and three new club members.
Two big announcements were also made at the event, which was also a first birthday party for Esposito's youngest daughter, Grace.
The 18 clubs in the Genesee district of Kiwanis International pledged a major gift, $100,000 over the next five years, to the construction of the new Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong.
The local club unveiled the news that one of an entire floor of neonatal intensive care unit rooms will be named for “Amazing” Grace, who was born Sept. 19, 2011 with serious, life-threatening medical complications, but has been doing "amazingly" well.
Kiwanis, a longtime supporter of the Children’s Miracle Network, of which the Golisano Children’s Hospital is a part, is making its pledge through the network.
“We’re building a world-class children’s hospital for all of western New York,” said the hospital’s board chairman, Mark Siewert, who attended Saturday’s event with his wife, Marcia.
All of the children, and some of the adults, at the event wore costumes.
Grace was costumed, appropriately enough, as the hospital’s mascot, Sandy Strong.
