LONG ISLAND, NY – Over five hundred guests gathered to celebrate the American Heart Association’s 19th Annual Heart of the Hamptons Ball at Hayground School located at 151 Mitchells Lane in Bridgehampton, NY on June 13, 2015.
This year, the Heart Ball was pleased to honor Howard Bluver, CEO, Suffolk County National Bank with the Distinguished Leadership Award and the Distinguished Service Award was presented to David H. Adams, MD, Cardiac Surgeon-in-Chief, Mount Sinai Health System Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Professor and Chairman, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and The Mount Sinai Hospital President, Mitral Foundation.
The event was chaired by Meredith Cohen. Cristina Civetta was Jr. Chair News Anchor Chris Wragge from CBS 2 News served as Emcee.
During the red carpet I spoke to Honoree Howard Bluver, CEO of Suffolk County National Bank.
Honoree Howard Bluver, CEO of Suffolk County National Bank speaks with Cognac at the American Heart Association’s 19th Annual Hamptons Heart Ball in Bridgehampton on June 13, 2015.
Tell my audience what this award means to you.
Howard: I have been a big supporter of the American Heart Association for many, many years even before I came out on the East End and I was asked to be the honoree to raise money for the organization and I said “Yes” and I got my whole bank involved. There will be about twenty-five people here who have participated in it and it’s for a great cause. I think they do great work. I support it one hundred percent. We have beautiful weather…
We have terrific weather. It is going to be a gorgeous evening. Tell my audience what made you become a supporter? Were there people in your family that suffered from disease or stroke?
Howard: Both my father and an aunt are in their late 80’s and 90’s and they are still with us because of surgery that they had.
Wow!
Howard: And also my generation and my kid’s generation because of a lot of the research that AHA does is all about lifestyle, exercise and health and healthy eating and so I think they do a great job getting out the word on doing research. It helps a lot of people in the community. I think it is a great organization to support.
Thank you so much and congratulations.
Howard Bluver has served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Suffolk Bancorp and Suffolk County National Bank (SCNB) since December 2011. Before coming to SCBN, he was founder and President of JDS Financial Group, LLC, a consulting firm which served the regulatory, transactional, risk management, corporate governance, due diligence and operational needs of the commercial bank, thrift and investment banking sectors. Mr. Bluver also served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Enterprise Risk Officer at GreenPoint Bank and GreenPoint Financial Corp., New York from 1994 to 2005 and as Deputy Chief Counsel, United States Office of Thrift Supervision, Washington, D.C. from 1987 to 1994.
Mr. Bluver began his career at the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. finishing as Chief of the branch in the Division of Corporation Finance that covered financial institutions. Mr. Bluver is proud to be honored by American Heart Association and has a strong commitment to the AHA mission of heart and brain health.
During the event many notable individuals including Philanthropist Sara Herbert-Galloway and Dr. Stephen H. Greenberg and his wife Gail Greenberg spoke to me about their support to the American Heart Association
Realty TV Star Gail Greenberg and Dr. Stephen T. Greenberg Talk with Cognac at the American Heart Association’s 19th Annual Hamptons Heart Ball in Bridgehampton on June 13, 2015.
Lastly I was proud to interview David H. Adams, MD, Cardiac Surgeon-in-Chief, Mount Sinai Health System Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Professor and Chairman, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and The Mount Sinai Hospital President, Mitral Foundation. Dr. Adams was presented with Distinguished Service Award.
Distinguished Service Award Honoree David H. Adams, MD, Cardiac Surgeon-in-Chief, Mount Sinai Health System speaks with Cognac at the American Heart Association’s 19th Annual Hamptons Heart Ball in Bridgehampton on June 13, 2015.
You are receiving a very special award tonight. Can you tell my audience what this award is really all about.
Dr. Adams: This award is really about a successful career in large part thanks to the American Heart Association. Like so many of my colleagues around the world they get a start…. a lot of times it comes from support from the American Heart Association so I have been very fortunate and had a great opportunity at Mount Sinai. I have accomplished a lot so far in my career and again we are here to celebrate the American Heart not me.
Tell my audience why you wanted to study this particular type of surgery, heart surgery?
Dr. Adams: Oh, I became interested in heart surgery when I was in college. I watched it when I was volunteering in the hospital. I was…..
Mesmerized.
Dr. Adams: Yeah, mesmerized by it.
I could imagine.
Dr. Adams: And so I spent the rest of my career pursuing that.
I think the American Heart Association and doctors like yourself are really, really combating this dreadful disease of stroke and heart disease. More and more people are living thanks to you. You are doing a terrific job. You really are. Can you tell my audience what we should all to do to prevent heart disease.
Dr. Adams: I think the best thing to do if I could tell you a single thing is probably exercise. I think the other thing is to be proactive about your health in terms of blood pressure or weight and diet and then of course it is to recognize that a lot of us will develop heart disease and if we do in the modern era you rarely die from it. You get help and you follow direction and most patients will live out their normal life expectancy with heart disease. That is really the remarkable mission of the American Heart Association and other societies like this and that is why this is, is because of all the work they have done on behalf of patients.
Singer Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin and Real Housewives Reality TV Star Ramona Singer at the American Heart Association’s 19th Annual Hamptons Heart Ball in Bridgehampton on June 13, 2015.
Dr. Adams is a leader in the field of heart valve surgery and mitral valve reconstruction. As the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery and Program Director of The Mount Sinai Hospital’s Mitral Valve Repair Reference Center, he has set national benchmarks with 99% degenerative mitral valve repair rates, while running one of the largest programs in the United States.
He is the co-inventor of 2 mitral valve annuloplasty repair rings (the Carpentier-McCarthy-Adams IMR ETlogix Annuloplasty Ring and the Carpentier-Edwards Physio II Annuloplasty Ring) and is also the inventor of the Medtronic Tri-Ad Adams Tricuspid Annuloplasty Ring. He is a co-director of the annual American College of Cardiology (ACC)/American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) Heart Valve Summit, and the Director of the biennial AATS Mitral Conclave, the largest international meeting in the world focused on mitral valve disease.
The American Heart Association is the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. Founded by six cardiologists in 1924. American Heart Association now includes more than 22.5 million volunteers and supporters. The organization funds innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies and provides critical tools and information to save and improve lives.
The American Heart Association includes 156 local offices and more than 3,000 employees. The American Stroke Association was created as a division in 1997 to bring together the organization’s stroke-related activities.
For more information please visit http://www.heart.org
