City Is.-based charity
helps substance abuse
treatment program
BY PATRICK ROCCHIO
An annual charitable
foundation again came
through for Jacobi Medical
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, M BTR ARCH 22-28, 2019 19
Center.
The John Gilder Memorial
Scholarship
Fund, which hosts a
lawn party each year on
City Island, made a donation
of $1,000 to the hospital
to use towards the
purchase of additional
recreational equipment
for the outpatient substance
abuse treatment
program lounge.
A spokesman for Jacobi
said that the grant,
matched by the Jacobi
Auxiliary approximately
dollar for dollar,
was used to buy a fl at
screen television, an air
hockey table, resurface
a pool table and make
other improvements to
encourage program participants.
“The patients at Jacobi
are deeply appreciative
of the Gilder donation,”
a spokesperson for
the hospital said, adding
that the donation exhibited
the type of kindness
that Gilder showed during
his life.
The scholarship fund
was started in memory
of a young man who
grew up on City Island
and passed away at a
very early age.
It has fully endowed
scholarships that go to
local youths who attend
Fordham University, as
Gilder did when he passed
away suddenly at the age
John Gilder
Photo courtesy of John Gilder
Memorial Lawn Party /File Photo
of 23 in 2009 from an undiagnosed
heart condition.
Once the scholarships
were fully endowed, the
fund looked for other
causes to support, initially
helping City Island
Little League teams, said
Jack Jokinen, who runs
the charity with Gilder’s
father Mark Gilder.
Jokinen became
aware of the deaths of
several of John’s former
friends and acquaintances
when he sent out
the yearly lawn party
invitations for the July
event.
“We wanted to help
the community and give
directly back to the people
who are giving this
money,” said Jokinen.
For several years,
early in the planning
Jokinen would send out
‘save the date’ invitations
to the party and
then follow up in June,
he said.
“We found for three
or four years in between
the time we sent the save
the date and the follow
up, we had to remove
people from the list because
they overdosed
and died,” said Jokinen.
Jokinen said that he
reached out to an old
friend who was fi ghting
a drug addiction, and he
suggested repairing the
recreation room at Jacobi’s
substance abuse program.
His friend said the
recreation room was really
‘beat up,’ and as a result,
some of the people
being treated were leaving
the building and getting
into trouble instead
of relaxing, said Jokinen.
During his life, John
urged his friends to refrain
from drug use, said
Jokinen.
“The motivation
and where it ties into to
John is these were his
friends,” said Jokinen.
“John wasn’t a drug user
and before he passed he
told friends who were
that they were ruining
their lives.”
He added: “This is
something we think
John would support and
be proud of.”
Additionally, the
charity sponsored Naloxone,
a substance that
serves an antidote to opioid
overdose, training on
City Island.
A photo of a recent year’s John Gilder Memorial Lawn Party, which will be held on City Island
for the 10th time this July. Photo courtesy of the John Gilder Memorial Lawn Party / File Photo