Co-chairwoman Terry Fedele announced a tie for the winner, a first, at the 15th annual Men with Caring Hearts Luncheon.
They were Jack Pechter, for Boca Raton Regional Hospital Foundation, and Dr. John Strasswimmer, for the Caridad Center in Boynton Beach. They were among 28 men and two Outstanding Male Youth Volunteers nominated by nonprofits that filled the ballroom with more than 450 patrons during the May 6 event at Boca West Country Club.
“His mother taught him to give back, and he’s been doing it ever since,” Marilyn Pechter said, speaking for her husband since he had just lost a brother. Pechter is a Holocaust survivor from Poland.
The men nominated were ages 16 to 93, said luncheon co-chairman Neil Meany, who also recognized previous winners there, among them Jay DiPietro, Gary Peters, Charles Deyo and Tim Snow.
“You’re all winners and you all have the biggest hearts,” said Ellyn Okrent, president and CEO of Florence Fuller Child Development Centers in Boca Raton, which was a benefactor of the luncheon.
The event’s signature Lifetime Achievement Award went to Marvin Rubin. His daughters Carrie Rubin and Amy Kohn said their parents set an example for them. They announced the Rubins would pay for a new school bus to replace the oldest of four at Florence Fuller. Okrent said it was “on its last legs.”
Toddlers from Fuller’s east campus preschool joined staffer Gabi Aleksinko in a round of “Put a Little Love in Your Heart.”
The Outstanding Male Youth Volunteers were Andrew Middlebrooks, there with his family and in full dress uniform, for the George Snow Scholarship Fund, and Lucas de Carvalho for the Eda & Cliff Viner Community Scholars Foundation.
The family of the late Tom Ehrbar, a former Fuller president, was presented with the Tiffany Biggest Heart in his memory. The emcee was Jason Solodkin.
