The Jeffrey Mosenson Memorial Fund will sponsor its first Las Vegas Casino Night on Saturday, Jan. 29 at Crest Hollow Country Club beginning at 8 p.m. The fund is currently working toward building the "Jeffrey Mosenson School Trauma and Emergency Medicine and Research Laboratory." The building will be financed primarily through an endowment from the fund and will be the future home of the Nassau County Fire, Police and EMS Academy and a research laboratory for the New York Institute of Technology/New York College of Osteopathic Medicine. The 15 - 20,000-square foot stand-alone building will be on the campus of the Nassau County University Medical Center in East Meadow and will include a 70 car parking lot.

The night will include an evening of an authentic casino-style atmosphere featuring Texas Hold-em poker, slot machines, blackjack, roulette, a cocktail hour, buffet dinner, an open bar, a live and silent auction and many prizes. Music will be provided by the Bruce Saunders Orchestra of Ken James Productions.

The Mosenson family wanted to do something to make the world a better place in Jeff's memory. Shortly after Jeff's death they started looking into how they could help improve and expand the emergency medical training of firemen, policemen, paramedics and other medical first responders. Jeff also loved his brief time as a student at New York Institute of Technology. Through a series of coincidences, it seemed that a joint venture was inevitable.

The Nassau County Fire, Police and EMS Academy currently train about 1,000 emergency personnel per year. The new facility will enable the academy to train up to 2,500 emergency personnel per year in a state-of-the-art training facility. The New York Institute of Technology laboratory will enable faculty and students to acquire research data that will yield papers and presentations at local, national, and international levels.

The fund's co-founder and executive director, David Mosenson, Jeff's father, said, "When a fireman, policeman, paramedic or medical first responder answers an emergency call at an accident or someone's house or business, no one ever thinks about where, when, and how these professionals received their training. The injured or sick are just thankful that they responded to deal with the emergency. The people who are trained at the center or are doing research at the lab will be able to take their training and research with them wherever they go."

There is limited funding for the training of firemen, policemen and other medical first responders. Many of the classes are taught by volunteers in poorly furnished and poorly equipped classrooms. In spite of this, these professionals love their work and if you ask any of them, they wouldn't trade it for anything. Gayle and David saw this first when they drove Jeff to many of the training classes.

Shortly before Jeff's death, he came home one night at about 2 a.m. and told his father he had a 'save.' His father asked Jeff what that meant. Jeff answered that he had responded to a call and a man was dead when he arrived on the scene. Jeff then told his father that he brought the man back to life, and that is how he described what a 'save' was. This is only one of many reasons Gayle and David are undertaking this project. If they can improve and expand the quality of emergency medical training here on Long Island so that other first responders can get a 'save,' then they feel they are helping to keep Jeff's work and memory alive.

A special presentation will also be made at the Las Vegas Casino Night. The first annual Jeffrey Mosenson Memorial Humanitarian Award will be presented to John Venditto, Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor. He has been chosen to receive this award, not for his politics but rather for his care and concern displayed to the residents in the community. He was selected to receive this award because when he was elected supervisor, his job description called for him to deal with budgets and community-related topics. Nowhere did it say that he would have to deal with the heart-felt loss of so many families who were devastated by the September 11 tragedy. It was also not in his job description that he had to help comfort the Mosenson family and the community at large with the tragedy of Jeff's death.

Unfortunately, the Mosenson family first learned of Venditto's caring nature from the tragedy of September 11. Jeff's uncle, Andrew Steven Zucker, age 27, lost his life that day in the collapse of Tower 2. Venditto was there to lend his support not only to the Mosenson and Zucker families, but to all of the families affected by that day. The Mosenson family was amazed at the number of the memorial services, street dedications and other public events that he attended commemorating that day and the lives of all those who were lost.

The Jeffrey Mosenson Memorial Fund is planning an exciting Las Vegas Casino Night and hopefully the community will support its efforts by placing ads in the event journal, purchasing event sponsorships, donating raffle prizes and attending the event. Tickets to the event can be gotten on line at the Jeffrey Mosenson Memorial Fund website at www.Jeffreymosenson.com or by calling 921-3599.