Support for Children’s Hospital, from New York

It’s a cool and pleasant night in Tribeca, one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in lower Manhattan, on Tuesday when, although we don’t know it yet, the Argentine soccer team is going to beat Bolivia.

A bunch of Argentines gather at the house of Gabrielle Grinstein to celebrate her campaign, the Argentine endocrinologist who decided to turn her birthday into a donation campaign for the Children’s Hospital Collaborator in the City of Buenos Aires.

There is a wood fire in the hearth, and at the entrance a 13-year-old Golden Retriever greets guests, the lover of a couple whose children have already settled in the university. The menu is unbeatable: empanadas and Malbec from our pampas.

“Nuni – that’s what they call the daughter of the founder of the Hospital’s Virology Laboratory, Saúl Grinstein – visited us in March this year and told us her opinion. Of course we were very happy that he wanted to help us,” remembers Silvina Pérez Mautino, executive director of the Collaborator.

Pérez Mautino says that the first communication was by phone, in February. Nuni began to learn about the areas or aspects in which she could collaborate with the Hospital, and before Pérez Mautino received her, they went on a tour of the facilities. The lab needed five microscopes to diagnose leukemia, and Nuni decided to honor his father, Coco, and lend a hand at the same time.

“My relationship with the Hospital is very strong because I have many memories of my father, and also because I lived there myself. And one knows that doctors are amazing, they save lives all the time, but things are always needed, she explains, surrounded by friends who are now joking- two because the Foundation that will be in the United States raising money for the Cooperativa, has proposed that she be its Ambassador. , a label that Nuni is a little embarrassed by.

Help, that old Argentine tradition. The Children’s Hospital Collaborator has been there for 67 years. It is one of the most prestigious charities in Argentina, known, among other things, for its Galas at the Teatro Colón.

This institution was founded as a result of the polio epidemic – Alicia Garré, the President of the Collaborative, explains with remarkable pedagogy – and the first organizer was Antonio Carrizo – raising money to create it.

To get as close as possible to the situation at that time, we will return to the land of ​​North America, but to the South of the State of Florida, where the Argentine community is gaining more and more weight.

In complete clarity, sitting at a white table, inside a boutique-style Argentine pastry shop located in South Miami, Victoria Galíndez focuses her light blue eyes and remembers “I couldn’t ‘father accept someone crying at home. He came from the hospital, from seeing so many babies and children suffering, that he didn’t let us fight over stupid things. When he started working he did it on top of a table, or wherever there was space. “So my mother was the one who went out to buy things that he asked her, so, at the time, while she was trying to save the boy’s life.”

From these circumstances arose the first donations and, in the midst of desperation, people organized to raise money or get whatever was needed at the Hospital.

That’s why Victoria strongly remembers her childhood with her father, Eduardo Galíndez. He is one of those Argentine doctors with enough sensitivity to use his profession with talent and sacrifice, but also add to his work a general good value.

With the same call for help, in 2020 members of the Cooperadora met with a group of Argentines in Miami, among them Victoria, Roberto Álvarez Roldán and also Norberto Spángaro – who are both part of the Board of Directors of the United States – and so -they created the Dr Ricardo Gutierrez Children’s Hospital Foundation Inc to legally establish a bridge between their desire to support the Argentine community in the United States and the Cooperadora, whose work has never stopped. grow

Guillermo Francella was one of the first celebrities to collaborate with the cause: that year, in Miami, Theft of the Century was given with great success and the money from 3 shows was given to that entity.

With a hint of hope. But we return to the north, always on the East coast.

The Argentine Consulate in New York is located in the center of Manhattan – 56th Street on the corner of the famous Fifth Avenue – in a building that is the property of the national State. It has 3 magnificent floors: on the ground floor, a living room and a hall that houses an art exhibition; then, the first floor with the consul’s office as well as other offices. And on the upper floor, an auditorium was ready to receive 100 visitors.

Pablo Piñeiro Aramburu receives Perfil at 3 in the afternoon, before dinner at Grinstein’s house, with coffee and cornstarch alfajores prepared by the Consulate staff.

“This building was acquired by our country in 1947 – comments of the consul – and it is an honor to be able to collaborate in everything that the Argentine community promotes. From that time of prosperity to today, there is no doubt that things have changed, but our resources and cultural agenda are available to initiatives such as the Foundation.”

We will discuss the excellent position of the Consulate at a dinner, with Nuni’s guests, which will begin after listening to the presentation of members of the North American group, and knowing that Aramburu supports the cause, suggesting ideas : from the auction at works of art, through organized concerts.

The presence of the Argentine School in Greenwich builds the group.

There is a strong Argentine community there that is committed to our country, so they can help a lot,” Nuni explains while sharing the news with those close to her, adding the details that Natalia Acevedo, an official at the Consulate, promises to make a connection. the parties.

The dinner will end with celebrations for Bolivia’s 6-1 victory, ice cream and our hospitality.

As part of the 2024 plan, the Dr. Ricardo Gutierrez Children’s Hospital Foundation aims to contribute groups of Argentines to the cause. In addition to Gabrielle Grinstein’s friends, in Miami about 20 entrepreneurs in the technology sector have already raised money to buy hemotherapy chairs, and more than 70 people met at the Argentine Meeting that also had a good balance .

They are firm measures that we are taking, but there is no doubt that a Hospital as important as Gutiérrez, where there are 2,500 children every day, needs more Argentines to help from the United States. That’s why we’re also launching a big campaign through social networks in November, says Horacio Genolet, president of the entity whose focus, now, is on Christmas.