Pic of the Week

For over a year I've watched Tim David pour his heart into something he really cares about!

This Saturday, all of Tim's hard work will come to fruition when One Step Closer hits the ice at Lasker Rink in Central Park in New York City. The event presented by Omnigage, is a collection of amazing figure skating talent that has come together to raise funds and awareness for the prevention of HIV/AIDS. The skating gala's chief benefactor being the AIDS Resource Foundation for Children. Tim has been working tirelessly to organize and produce an amazing event.

The amazing collection of talent assembled at One Step closer includes 1994 Olympic Champion Oksana Baiul. "I am very pleased to have the opportunity to help AIDS Resource Foundation for Children. I plan to the near future to open my own Charitable Foundation, I understand how a organizations, such as The AIDS Resource Foundation for Children, does so much for the community and helps children in need."

Other skating talent includes: Elaine Zayak, Melissa Bulanhagui, Parker Pennington, and Angela Maxwel among many others.

Tickets are available online now and will also be available at the door. Admission is $15, or $40 if you'd like to join the skaters at an exclusive Meet and Greet.

Happy Chanukah

Chag chanukah sameach ve-shana tova.

The Pond at Bryan Park is hopping these days! Tomorrow, what better way to enhance your Chanukah celebrations than to head down to the Pond and see Israeli Ice Dance Champions and bronze medalists from the recent Cancer.Net Skate America, Alexandra and Roman Zaretski, perform.

Aside from performing, Alexandra and Roman will also be giving a master-class to a selected group of inner city youth and will share soufganiot and Chanukah gelt with them.

Alexandra and Roman, the children, and special guests will all be available for interviews at the event (Lifeskate?).

The fun begins tomorrow (December 15th) at 4:00 PM.

Make sure to always keep up with what's happening at The Pond at Bryant Park!

Press Release - FIGURE SKATING CALENDAR IS A “FUN” FUNDRAISER

FIGURE SKATING CALENDAR IS A “FUN” FUNDRAISER

Skating Coach & Mom of an Autistic Child Spins into Action to Pay for Uninsured Expenses

With the disappointing state of health insurance today, an innovative Olathe, Kansas family was required to seek alternate options to help pay for the exorbitant costs of their son’s Autism therapy. The mother, a figure skating coach, pulled all her resources to create a limited edition figure skating calendar with all potential proceeds going directly to the intensive treatment required by her 4 1/2 year old son Morgan Joseph Holmes.

The 2010 Figure Skating Calendar Is NOW Available for Pre-order!
This 12” x 12” full color calendar will be treasured by figure skaters young and old. It features uniquely decorated skates and includes significant competition dates (Olympics, Worlds and ISU Grand Prix Series) and birthdays of past Figure Skating Olympic champions. A minimum donation of $13 is being asked for The 2010 Figure Skating Calendar from now until September 30, 2009. Then, from October 1 forward, a minimum donation of $15 is being requested.

Morgan was diagnosed with Autism in 2007, and received 18 months of intensive Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy in home with significant positive results. The current cost of Morgan’s treatment is 25-thousand dollars per year. The family can no longer afford ABA therapy, and Morgan’s treatments have been put on hold while they raise additional funds. ABA therapy is not covered by most health insurance, and many families have out-of-pocket cost exceeding 50-thousand dollars a year.
Today 1 in every 94 boys born will be diagnosed with Autism, which is a mental condition present from early childhood. Autism is characterized by difficulty in communicating, forming relationships with people, using language and abstract concepts.

ABA is the science in which procedures derived from the principles of behavior are systematically applied to improve socially significant behavior to a meaningful degree and to demonstrate experimentally that the procedures employed were responsible for the improvement in behavior.

If you want to take action to help people with Autism or get more information about state and national Autism related legislation please go to www.autismvotes.org to find out how you can help make a difference in your state and in Washington D.C.

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For more information about 2010 Figure Skating Calendar go to www.figureskatingcalendar.com or contact Katie Holmes at 913-738-4554, email 1skatinglesson@gmail.com, follow the subject on Twitter at mojoholmes or become a fan of www.figureskatingcalendar.com on Facebook.

Pressrelease: One Step Closer - an Aids benefit

NYC - MARCH 13, 2010

A skating exhibition to benefit the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS

The idea came to me (Tim David) on May 31, 2009 after a rehearsal for the end of year North Jersey FSC exhibition. I wanted to use my resources and talent and knowledge as a skating director and executive assistant for 9 years. I wanted to make a difference. I knew a lot of benefits shows already happened and were on the works, Breast cancer & Muscular Dystrophy, shows such as Stand up for Life, Skate for Life, and Skate for Hope. So I decided that I wanted to do an aids benefit. I knew this was not an easy project to tackle. But I was determined that day to make it happen. I phoned my General Manager at the rink and have set the day and date that afternoon for Saturday March 13, 2010.

Now, title of the show…. I previously helped my friend Aaron Gillespie with the title of his show when he had his epiphany that night for Stand up for Life. I also loved Destiny Child’s song, Stand up for Life and thought it was very fitting for the show. Now to come up with my own title and theme song…. My partner/husband Brian Mancuso had come up with One Step Closer. He believes that every benefit and funds go to the research for the cure, we are one step closer. Perfect, I thought.

The theme song hasn’t hit me yet, so I decided to search for aids foundations and the cast of skaters. The aids foundation that One Step Closer benefit will raise money for is the Aids Resource Foundation for Children. Their mission, “Meeting the needs of children and families living with HIV/AIDS.” I looked through their services and was touched by the good deeds that they do. I called them up and expressed my interest.

While I was waiting for the foundation to agree on collaborating with me on this benefit I started looking for skaters.

I asked my former coach, friend, and mentor US Open competitor Heidi Vanderhoof, and close friends 1999 US Juvenile champion Aaron Gillespie, 2006 North Atlantic Regional champion Michael Quadrino, 2001 US Juvenile Brady Chin and 1996 & 1997 US National Senior Ladies competitor Alizah Allen to skate, and all happily agreed. I then contacted other friends and Facebook friends; Nicholas LaRoche, Melissa Bulanhagui, Valentina Marchei, Rory Flack-Burghart, Kylie Duarte and Colin Grafton, and Scott Smith and In addition to the cast I also have skating champions such as Ann Patrice McDonough and Oksana Baiul. I also have other skaters who will let me know around November whether they can skate and attend the benefit on March. Performing also are the Figure Skating in Harlem synchro team.

Serving as my honorary guests I have Sharon Cohen-Founder of Figure Skating in Harlem, Figure Skating Fashion Designer Tania Bass, 2-time Swiss national figure skating champion, former European & World competitor, 2-time Professional Bronze medalist, Guinness World Record holder Lucinda Ruh. Within my board of directors I have US Adult National competitor Thom Mullins and US pairs legend Tai Babilonia. Helping me making this show a success I also have my partner/husband Brian Mancuso serving as my executive director and close friend Karen Malanum as my associate producer event coordinator. The logo of One Step Closer is designed by my close friend and New York City Fashion Designer Potenciano Adobas.

The event is being held at Central Park’s Lasker Skating Rink where I serve as their Figure Skating Director. It is a two rink outdoor facility located at 110th Street Central Park North. Tickets will be available online on Monday, August 3, 2009.

The official website of the event is www.onestepclosernyc.org

For more information, you can e-mail Tim and follow him on Twitter @TimDavid_NYC

UPDATE: There may be some fiddling with the dates for this event. I'll post an update when it's available.