A few weeks ago I spoke at a conference and got to meet one of my fellow speakers, Tony Colleluori, a renowned criminal defense lawyer, a terrific speaker and a multiple blogger (see his criminal defense law blog and That Lawyer Dude). In a short time, I knew that Tony has a heart of gold, cares about the profession of law and his clients in a way that you seldom see these days, and that he absolutely loves his wife. I also had the sense that Tony would be a formidable adversary if you ran up against him in court. In short, he became my favorite criminal defense lawyer.
I mention Tony’s wife because she is suffering from scleroderma, a connective tissue disease that greatly limits what she can do.
With hurricanes and other disasters taking center stage in 2005, the Scleroderma Foundation, like many other lesser-known charities, is struggling to raise funds. Its big fund-raiser is its National Gala in New York City.
If you are in NYC and have the chance to attend the Gala, please consider doing so. You’ll get your money’s worth just hearing Tony tell a few of his stories. If you can put the Scleroderma Foundation on your list of charities for this year, that would be a nice thing, too. If you know people with extra dollars to help a small charity, please mention this to them. I’m sure that Tony would be happy to provide you with more details.
And while you are thinking about this, please consider the Spina Bifida Association, currently chaired by one of my best friends in the blawgosphere, the amazing (but easily-embarrassed by me making this kind of fuss) Doug Sorocco. See Doug’s testimony before Congress on quality of life issues for those with spina bifida here.
I’ve added both charities to my WhatGoesAround GiveList if you’d like an easy way to contribute to them. If you like my blog, one thing that you can consider doing is making a contribution to one of my favorite charities through WhatGoesAround.org – a cool idea and something I prefer rather than having a “tip jar” on this blog.
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www,denniskennedy.com/blog/)]