On a beautiful Monday morning, we welcomed colleagues, union members, sponsors, teammates, friends, and family to Oak Park Country Club in River Grove, IL, for the 3rd Annual Vogelzang Law Charity Golf Outing. The annual golf outing is an ongoing collaboration with the national cancer community and a chance to further awareness, research, and education. This year, we proudly announce that we raised $10,790 for RUSH University Medical Center’s Lung Screening Program.
“We are so honored and humbled to see all the union support and participation for our annual charity golf outing,” says Mirela Kopier, Vogelzang Law’s Director of PR and the charity golf outing director. “This event wouldn’t be successful without our union families.”
We were joined by RUSH faculty Christopher W. Seder, MD, and Michael J. Liptay, MD, FACS, both professors in the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery. Dr. Seder and Dr. Liptay highlighted the importance of early lung screenings and the good they can do.
“We are really thrilled that Nick Vogelzang and his crew picked our screening program to support,” says Dr. Liptay. “Our lung cancer screening program at RUSH has been around for at least five years…currently our program screens about 3,000 people a year, and 3 percent, so, three out of a hundred scans, will have an early cancer found. And that means a life saved.”
The RUSH lung screening program has a simple goal of more early detection, which can prolong or save a life. The money raised will go towards more research to pair blood tests with the screenings to make them accurate and yield even better results.
RUSH has been and continues to be a supporter of unions. “I just want to talk about the precedent we’ve set working with unions,” says Dr. Seder. “We had this idea that people with increased exposures would maybe develop more frequent cancers…we started with the Chicago firefighters. We worked with Local 2 and the union leaders within Local 2 to have a self-pay screening program, even for people who didn’t meet the nationally set criteria.” The goal was to allow them to be screened for a nominal amount. “These firefighters are running into fires, having smoke inhalation, exposed to God knows what that’s burning in these houses..and that may be very similar to what your [union] members are working with asbestos, around asbestos.”
Our guests this year included union members, health professionals, and other Vogelzang Law family and friends. We were all overjoyed to take the time to see familiar faces, meet new people, and enjoy the gorgeous fall weather.
We couldn’t hold this event without the support of our sponsors and partners. Their generosity and support make the entire outing possible. We are grateful to our VL team for volunteering before, during, and after the event. It’s a wonderful time to get out of the office and enjoy food and drinks with our friends and family.
“I want to give a big thanks to Mirela,” said firm founder and lead counsel Nick Vogelzang. “She does such a good job…she’s the heart and soul of VL and making sure that we’re in the community.”
We can’t wait to see what next year brings and look forward to many more Vogelzang Law golf outings to com
