WHITE PLAINS, NY –JDM is an incurable, life-threatening disease that causes muscle pain, weakness, fatigue and can attack nearly all systems of the body. Each year, about 1,000 children are diagnosed. In July of 2013, Russell Taormina US’16 was among them.
It began with a fever that wouldn’t break. Then a rash. Soon, he would need a wheelchair to get around.
Taormina has shown tremendous strength since then, battling the disease while maintaining a positive outlook. So much so that former President George H. W. Bush wrote him a letter this past August stating that “Barbara and I are pulling for you and saluting you for your commitment to find a cure.”
President Bush has donated a limited edition portrait of himself to be auctioned off at an event at The Coliseum in White Plains on Saturday, Sept. 19. The day prior, Taormina will be kicking off a yearlong text-to-give campaign from inside the Tully Gymnasium at Iona Prep.
The “Stand By Me” Text-to-Give event begins at 4 p.m. and will feature pizza, ice cream and the chance to enter a raffle for a two-year lease on a 2015 Mercedes-Benz C300 Sedan.
