Due to the generosity of many local business and individual sponsors, the event raised a gross total of $760,020 (a net of $637,805) in support of the expansion campaign, realizing a net increase of 8 percent over last year's gala.

1. News From:
For Immediate Release September 29, 2017
Contact: Damian Becker, Manager of Media Relations
(516) 377-5370
South Nassau’s New ‘Soirée Under the Stars’ Raises $637,000 – Most
Successful Event in Hospital’s History
-- Jeffrey Feil, Real Estate Developer, Healthcare Philanthropist;
Renowned Cancer Surgeon, Rajiv Datta, MD & 40-year Nurse Leader Lori Edelman, RN,
Honored for Their Dedication and Commitment to South Nassau’s Mission
Photo Caption (L to R) – South Nassau’s President & CEO, Richard J. Murphy; Lori Edelman, RN, Director of Patient Care
Services, 2017 Cupola Award recipient; Chair of the Board of Directors, Joe Fennessy; Rajiv Datta, MD, Chief of Surgery,
Medical Director, 2017 Mary Pearson Award recipient.
Oceanside, NY – With a late summer sky overhead, some 540 supporters of South Nassau Communities
Hospital attended the Hospital’s new Soirée Under the Stars at the Crest Hollow Country Club and raised more
than $637,000 for the hospital’s Emergency Department Expansion Campaign, making it the most successful
fundraiser of its kind in the nearly 100-year history of the hospital.
The poolside gathering honored Jeffrey Feil, real estate developer, healthcare philanthropist; Rajiv
Datta, MD, South Nassau’s Chief of Surgery and Lori Edelman, RN, Director of Patient Care Services.
South Nassau administrators, board members and medical staff members, as well as many of the
region’s healthcare executives, state and local public officials and business and community leaders were among
the hundreds of guests who attended the Soirée, which was held Saturday, September 16, at the Crest Hollow
Country Club in Woodbury.
Due to the generosity of many local business and individual sponsors, the event raised a gross total of
$760,020 (a net of $637,805) in support of the expansion campaign, realizing a net increase of 8 percent over
last year’s gala.
Proceeds from the Soiree go toward a five-year, $10 million fundraising initiative to help support a $60
million renovation and expansion of the Oceanside Emergency Department. The Emergency Department
currently sees some 65,000 patients a year, but was designed to handle just 35,000 annually. When completed,

2. the expansion and modernization project will nearly double the size of the Emergency Department in Oceanside
to the size of a football field, allowing South Nassau to better service residents of the South Shore who depend
upon it daily. South Nassau’s Emergency Department in Oceanside is the only Trauma Center on the South
Shore of Nassau County. It is projected to treat up to 80,000 patients in the coming years.
Mr. Feil served as this year’s honoree, while Dr. Datta and Ms. Edelman were presented with the
hospital’s Mary Pearson and Cupola awards, respectively. “Jeffrey Feil has been a long standing supporter of
South Nassau. We are very grateful for his continued commitment to the hospital and for his ongoing interest in
insuring that the best of care is available to South Shore residents right here at home,” said Richard J. Murphy,
president and CEO of South Nassau. “Lori Edelman and Dr. Datta are two of our most dedicated leaders at
South Nassau who are always looking out for the best for patients. They are well deserving of this recognition.”
Mr. Feil, a long-time resident of Rockville Centre, is a respected metro area real estate developer and
philanthropist whose family has had a transformative impact on South Nassau in expanding and elevating the
standard of cancer care for South Nassau’s patients. The Feil family has donated more than $6 million to South
Nassau in the past several years. This includes a $3 million donation to South Nassau in the spring of 2011 that
supported the continued growth and expansion of the hospital’s Gertrude & Louis Feil Cancer Center, located
in Valley Stream. In December 2016, the Charitable Lead Annuity Trust under the will of Louis Feil, donated
$1 million toward a new consolidated cancer center being planned at the hospital’s Oceanside campus. One of
Long Island’s premiere providers of compassionate advanced cancer care, the Center treats more than 1,500
patients annually with leading-edge cancer treatment technologies.
South Nassau’s Mary Pearson Award is presented annually to an individual for extraordinary effort and
individual contributions that significantly advance South Nassau’s commitment to compassionate care and
standard setting healthcare services. Since joining South Nassau in 2001 as director of Surgical Oncology/Head
& Neck Surgery, Dr. Datta, MBA, FACS, FRCS, FICS, of Muttontown, NY, has earned a global reputation for
leadership and surgical innovation. Today, he also serves as chair of the Department of Surgery and medical
director of the Gertrude & Louis Feil Cancer Center.
His exceptional skills are evidenced by his education, recognition in the field of surgery and by a strong
patient following. He has the unusual distinction of holding three fellowships – from the International College
of Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Surgeons. Under Dr. Datta’s
leadership, the Gertrude & Louis Feil Cancer Center has been equipped with three of the most effective
technologies used to treat and eradicate cancer: the Varian Novalis Tx™, daVinci® Surgical System and
Gamma Knife® Perfextion.
South Nassau established the Cupola Award in 2015 to be presented annually to a deserving hospital
employee who goes above and beyond their duties and lives by the hospital mission to promote excellence in
healthcare. Ms. Edelman, RN, CEN, NE-BC, of Long Beach, NY, the 2017 recipient of the award, has worked
with South Nassau for 30 years. She has demonstrated unflappable, focused leadership in overseeing patient

3. care services – not only in her decades of service at the hospital’s Oceanside Emergency Department, but since
it opened in 2015, at the hospital’s Emergency Department in Long Beach, Long Island’s only free-standing
emergency department, which has seen over 20,000 patients. In addition to her duties in the Emergency
Departments, Ms. Edelman also has a leadership role on three of the hospital’s medical-surgical units.
The Soiree introduced a new format this year with a two hour outdoor reception followed by an hour of
Broadway quality entertainment. Guests overwhelmingly embraced the new approach, helping to make it the
most successful fundraising event in SNCH history. Board members and Soiree Co-Chairmen Tony Cancellieri
and Wayne Lipton, helped reorganize the event, bringing it to a new level.
“We are very grateful to Mr. Cancellieri and Mr. Lipton for lending us their guidance and expertise to
help make the Soiree a memorable evening that also raised an unprecedented sum for our capital campaign,”
said Joe Calderone, South Nassau’s Senior Vice President of Communications & Development.
Designated a Magnet® hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) for outstanding
nursing care, South Nassau® Communities Hospital is one of the region’s largest hospitals, with 455 beds, more
than 900 physicians and 3,500 employees. Located in Oceanside, NY, the hospital is an acute-care, not-for-
profit teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac, oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain
management, mental health and emergency services.
In addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, South Nassau provides emergency and elective
angioplasty, and offers Novalis Tx™ and Gamma Knife® radiosurgery technologies. South Nassau operates
the only Trauma Center on the South Shore of Nassau County verified by the American College of Surgeons as
well as Long Island’s only free-standing, 9-1-1 receiving Emergency Department in Long Beach. South Nassau
also is a designated Stroke Center by the New York State Department of Health and Comprehensive
Community Cancer Center by the American College of Surgeons, and is an accredited center of the Metabolic
and Bariatric Surgery Association and Quality Improvement Program.
In addition, the hospital has been awarded the Joint Commission’s gold seal of approval for disease-
specific care for hip and knee replacement, heart failure, bariatric surgery, wound care and end-stage renal
disease. For more information, visit www.southnassau.org.
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