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'Pathways to Excellence,' Rivershore's annual gala, takes place Wednesday at NFCC

by jmaloni
Mon, Sep 10th 2012 07:00 am

The Rivershore Foundation presents Rivershore's third annual gala dinner, "Pathways to Excellence," on Wednesday, Sept. 12, at the Niagara Falls Country Club, 505 Mountain View Drive.

Zach Anner, host of the Oprah Winfrey Network's "Rolling with Zach," is this year's special guest. WGRZ Channel 2 news anchor Maryalice Demler will once again serve as mistress of ceremonies.

"This year is our third annual dinner gala. In the broadest sense, this event supports people living with disabilities as they pursue and achieve a meaningful life, which is our mission," said Rivershore Inc. Executive Director Jeff Sanderson. "We established this event to raise awareness about the impact Rivershore is having in our community now and in the future.

"Each year we feature a celebrity guest who themselves lives with a disability. This is important because it serves to breakdown stereotypes about disability and fosters understanding and respect. Each time we have done this event we get so much feedback from attendees about how they found it to be a life-changing experience."

The event begins at 5 p.m. with a silent auction, hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar. Dinner seating is at 6:30 p.m., with a welcome and invocation 15 minutes later. The program gets under way at 7:30 p.m.

"This event helps us to gain new Rivershore supporters, and also raises money each year to support the work Rivershore does," Sanderson said. "It is our goal to continually grow and expand this event in order to magnify the impact of it. This event is not designed to support a specific initiative; rather, the event supports our priorities at a given point in time. In these extraordinary times, we need a great deal of support from our community.

"We are so grateful to everyone who supports us, we could not do it without them. We are particularly grateful this year to our gala sponsors: Wegmans, our event sponsor; Upstate Pharmacy - diamond sponsor; Lawley Benefits - platinum sponsor; and Key Bank - gold sponsor."

Rivershore was named a Consumerism, Outcome, Management Plan and Agency Self-Survey designee by New York state in 2002, and has maintained that status ever since. In recognition of excellence and the highest quality standards, COMPASS status has been awarded to only the top 1 percent of agencies serving people with developmental disabilities in New York.

For more information, visit http://rivershore.org/.

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