Support for CURE From Connie Milstein

Epilepsy research is underfunded when compared to other illnesses receiving funding for research. According to a study conducted in 2008, whereas Parkinson’s disease received between 2,000 and 2,500 dollars per patient in the United States, Epilepsy research received only 500-590 dollars per patient.

One of the mandates of CURE, Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy, is to lobby the government and educate the public to give funds for Epilepsy research which is on par with other health research in the U.S.

The newest board member of CURE, Connie Milstein will be contributing to this effort and help bring the goals of CURE to the forefront of the consciousness of the public in the United States.

Connie Milstein Comes on Board of CURE

Connie Milstein has recently added another organization that she actively supports with her hard work and determination. Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy, known as CURE, has added Ms. Milstein to their board of directors.

Susan Axelrod is the President of CURE, which she co-founded with two other women in 1998 after experiencing years of frustration and disappointment trying to find appropriate medication or a cure for her daughter Lauren’s severe epilepsy.

Connie Milstein has been involved with CURE in the past, helping with fund raising and hosting special events for the supporters of CURE. It was only a natural consequence of Connie’s undaunted and devoted support which led her to becoming an active board member for CURE.

Medical Mission for Children Reaches Out Throughout the Globe

Connie Milstein is a Trustee for the innovative organization Medical Missions for Children. Headquartered in St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital in Paterson, New Jersey, MMC reaches out to over 100 countries globally to make available the most up-to-the-minute treatments, practices and knowledge to wherever that information is needed.

Medical outreach, or distance medicine is facilitated through several of MMC’s programs, including Telemedicine Outreach Program, Medical Broadcasting Channel, Global Video Library of Medicine, and Giggles Children’s Theater. MMC also sponsors four different television programs geared to the general public. The four programs include Plain Talk, Tomorrow’s Medicine Today, Take Care and Encore Lifestyles.

Each of these initiatives and programs are designed to educate viewers, physicians, investigators, and health care workers of all types to stay abreast of the latest information that could help them improve the lives of millions of people, including saving lives across the world.

Connie Milstein Trustee for Medical Missions for Children

Medical Missions for Children is a special organization that has taken on the task of bringing the superior medical resources which are widely available in industrialized and western societies to the places in the world where it may be most needed but least available.

Using the astounding communications technology now available scientific know-how and cutting-edge treatments can readily be transferred almost instantly with the technical issue of location no longer playing a crucial role in health care around the world.

Connie Milstein, as a Trustee on the board of this innovative and life-saving organization, can take pride in her involvement and support of the work MMC is doing. There is no question that increasing knowledge, transferring information from its ‘point of origin’ to the ‘frontlines’ of medicine and improving the lives of millions of children, adults, men and women throughout the world is a goal worth working towards.

HDI Brings Food Security to International Community

Empowerment is the modus operandi with which Connie Milstein practices her philanthropy, and the food security program of HDI is just another example of how this is accomplished. Satisfying their interest in feeding the hungry and helping those who are disenfranchised has always been an important goal of the directors of Humpty Dumpty Institute, including Connie Milstein. HDI’s projects in Africa and Asia combine the clearance of mines with the development of agriculture which increases the local food supply.

As just one example, HDI cleared landmines from important roads and thoroughfares so that over 20,000 individual farmers could bring their farm produce to the marketplace for the first time in more than ten years.

In another case landmine removal was removed from the areas around schools in Laos in exchange for getting a daily, healthy snack for each one of 10,000 students. In Sri Lanka the HDI clearance program is combined with teaching more than 1,200 farmers modern and new techniques for agriculture and bringing a renaissance to the now dormant, but once thriving, dairy industry.

Empowerment, self-sufficiency, human dignity are the goals the HDI, with Connie Milstein at the helm, strive towards.

Arts, Education, Politics Just Some of Connie Milstein’s Many Interests

Connie Milstein is involved in charitable organizations such as Medical Missions for Children and her very special bakery, Connie’s Bakery and General Store, where every purchase goes to charity and the business employees and trains people that otherwise might not have had a real chance at earning a living wage in a dignified manner.

Ms. Milstein is also participates in the democratic process and supports political causes such as The National Democratic Institute and the Democratic Governors Association.

Added to all this, Connie Milstein is a busy patron of the arts and educational institutions, with involvement in such organizations such as the New York City Opera, the New York City Parks Foundation and New York University.

Mine Action Programs of HDI Supported by Connie Milstein

Connie Milstein is a co-founder and board member of the Humpty Dumpty Institute, which is on the forefront of the battle against the international landmine epidemic. In order to remove the mines HDI has created innovative partnerships to raise money and awareness.

One of its more pioneering projects was begun in 2004, which monetized surplus food commodities in the U.S. and using the proceeding monies for reinforcing the symbiotic goals of demining and development of agriculture on the newly cleared lands. In this way the HDI was able to directly contribute almost $10 million towards the landmine clearance programs of Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Laos, Armenia and several others.

HDI, with the support of Connie Milstein has also created a program called “Adopt-A-Minefield.” Begun in 1998, Adopt-A-Minefield has raised more than $20 million for its many projects. The goal of these projects is the same everywhere: to support and help the direct and indirect victims of landmines so that they can either return home, find jobs, support families, be productive members of their societies and in general lead normal, fulfilling lives.

Connie Milstein Promoting UN-US Relations at HDI

As Chairman, Co-Founder and Board Member of the Humpty Dumpty Institute, Connie Milstein promotes improved dialogue between the U.S. government, the U.S. Congress and the United Nations. This improved relationship is accomplished through several means and on a variety of levels.

At the moment HDI is the only U.S. organization that brings congressmen and women and other senior government staff to United Nations Headquarters for private and off-the-record talks on issues of critical importance to the U.S. and U.N.

Based on the belief that sharing information improves policy decisions, the Humpty Dumpty Institute offers several programs for policy makers to get informed.

1. Congressional Delegations are brought to the headquarters of the United Nations in NY: This is the flagship program of HDI, which brings congressmen, senators, and their senior staff members to New York to meet in private and off-the-record with senior Secretariat officials and U.N. diplomats at the U.N. headquarters. More than 300 offices of congressional leaders have participated so far in the HDI sponsored delegations since this programs founding.

2. U.N. Across America: This latest HDI program takes members of the U.N. diplomatic corps to meet the people of America, from all backgrounds and with all their concerns and issues. This program has so far concentrated on reaching out to U.S. citizens outside the Northeastern corridor of the U.S. and has taken 50 U.N. diplomats to 10 different American cities. The U.N. diplomats have also met with city and state level policy makers in Detroit, Boston, and Phoenix, Portland (Maine and Oregon), Houston and more.

3. U.N. to D.C.: HDI also brings the U.N. diplomats down to Washington to meet law-makers in their own headquarters for more closed door, off-the-record policy discussions.

Connie Milstein Shows Support with Gift of Delicious Brownies

Assistant pastry chef Jamie Jeffrey, along with Liane Paap of Connie’s Bakery, delivered 20,000 brownies to the inaugural celebration in Washington D.C. last January. According to Deena Plotka, who works at Connie’s too,

“Connie Milstein wanted to support the efforts of our president-elect, of all the people in Washington, D.C., our nation and all the volunteers.”

Connie’s is an amazing enterprise which is well-known for its one year apprenticeship program, which hires people having difficulties finding work and trains them to be employable in the food service industry. Jamie Jeffrey, the employee that delivered the brownies to Washington, was living in a shelter with no prospects for gainful employment when she became an apprentice at Connie’s Bakery, in 2006. After finishing her apprenticeship she was hired at a full-time assistant pastry chef at the Bakery, and got to deliver the brownie’s to the inauguration.

Team Effort at Connie’s Bakery Get Brownie’s to the Inauguration on Time

Connie’s Bakery, located in Mt. Kisco, New York, closed down from January 5th until January 17th so that the staff would be available to bake, wrap and store 20,0000 brownies to be distributed at various events and venues of the presidential inauguration of Barak Obama. Working 20 hour days, the staff at Connie Milstein’s bakery worried if they would be able to complete the task at hand by the deadline, when they only managed to pack 810 brownies by the end of the first day.

Enlisting the help of the community by placing a sign on the door of Connie’s asking for help from the public, volunteers came to the rescue and brought the 20,000 brownies goal to fruition.
Expressing a theme of Connie’s Bakery in general, Deena Plotka, one of the employees at Connie’s, said,

“That’s the only way for us to be successful, is through the support of the community.”

Plotka continued:

“This goes to show us how many people are becoming aware of who we are, what we do and our mission, and they support our efforts.”

Twenty Thousand Brownies for Inauguration of Barak Obama from Connie’s Bakery

Connie’s Bakery, one of Connie Milstein’s philanthropic projects, donated 20,000 brownies to the historic inaugural celebration of President Barak Obama in January, 2009. In order to facilitate this mighty undertaking, Connie’s was closed from January 5th until January 17th, although the facility was itself was hard at work producing the scrumptious brownies by the thousands.

The yummy treats were distributed to the large cadre of volunteers working hard to make the inauguration an outstanding success, and were Connie’s way of saying thank you and giving back to the community. The largest number of brownies, 10,000, was distributed at the “Day of Service” even which took place at RFK Stadium. The rest of the brownies were made available at seven other events in honor of and in celebration of the inauguration.

Connie Milstein: TOP is Tops at Medical Missions for Children

One of the outstanding features of the Medical Missions for Children organization is the Telemedicine Outreach Program, (TOP.) The main mission of TOP is to help children who are seriously ill, who are having trouble getting a correct diagnosis. Without an accurate assessment of what is wrong, it is impossible to embark on the right course of treatment, and even worse, incorrect treatment could cause even more damage. Unfortunately, as much as one third of diagnoses in the developing world have been shown to be incorrect. MMC and TOP hope to correct this problem through telemedicine.

Since there is a severe shortage of expert medical care in many underserved communities around the world, the mission of TOP is to supply the expertise of physicians who are located in the developed world to people in communities without access to this high level of medical care. This is achieved via hi-tech telecommunications technology.

TOP and MMC presently runs a network of 27 level-one mentoring hospitals in the U.S. and Europe participating in TOP. Because TOP enjoys a partnership with the World Bank, TOP has a presence in over 100 countries all over the globe.

Connie Milstein Supports Telemedicine with MMC

Medical Missions for Children is an organization whose goal is to “restore hope and health through technology.” Connie Milstein is one of the founders of this unique organization, and is on the board of trustees. Headquartered in St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital in Paterson, New Jersey, MMC is an award winning charity which sends out its message in many distinct ways.
MMC includes among its programs:

1. Telemedicine Outreach Program (TOP): a distance-medicine network which operates in over 100 countries.

2. The Medical Broadcasting Channel (MBC): a global satellite and IP TV Network.

3. The Global Video Library of Medicine (GVLM)

4. Giggles Children’s Theater: a troupe whose motto is “laughter is the best medicine.”

5. Four Television Programs which are targeted for general audiences including Plain Talk, Tomorrow’s Medicine Today, Take Care and Encore Lifestyles.

Through these media and more, MMC hopes to improve the health and wellness of millions of people throughout the world each year.

Milstein Founder and Member of Medical Missions for Children

Connie Milstein is a founding member and is on the board of trustees of the international organization Medical Missions for Children. The goal of MMC is to “transfer medical knowledge from those who have it to those who need it” using the most up-to-date communications technologies.

Our civilization is in the midst of a medical revolution where new breakthroughs and discoveries are happening at a pace never before seen in history. MMC believes that this knowledge should be spread as rapidly as it is discovered. MMC is therefore constantly seeking ways to transfer this knowledge from the place it is developed to the “front lines of medicine.”

By helping to facilitate this transfer of knowledge, Connie Milstein and the MMC organization hope to improve the health of millions of people each year.

Charity Begins at Home at Connie’s Bakery

Taking a great idea to the next level, Connie Milstein of Connie’s Bakery and General Store in Mt. Kisco, New York, insists that her employees are treated with dignity and respect, regardless of the fact that all profits from the business enterprise are given to charity.

Every worker is paid a “living wage” as well as given medical benefits if they are full-time employees. Not only that, but there is an effort to support small local farmers and craftsmen whenever possible when purchasing decisions are made.

Connie’s Bakery and General Store is a model business enterprise which donates all its profits to charity, which is really the icing on the cake.

Baked Goods for Charity at Connie’s Bakery Make Good Business Sense

Connie Milstein is a Principal of Ogden CAP Properties, but she is also the force behind the successful business Connie’s Bakery and General Store. This is the award-winning shop that donates 100% of its profits to charity.

But just because the profits are “only” for charity does not mean that the business side of the enterprise is in any way neglected. Rather, only the best ingredients go into each tasty pastry, cake, pie, tart and cookie. Everything is made with the most wholesome elements by hand, just the way grandma used to.

Employees are paid a living wage, which means Connie’s is also an example and role model for other businesses to do the same, including providing medical benefits to all of Connie’s full-time employees.

Connie Milstein: Great Cookies for Good Causes

Connie Milstein had a wonderful idea. Why not sell something people love and are more than willing to buy anyway, and give the profits to charitable causes?

This idea has come to fruition in the successful shop known as Connie’s Bakery and General Store. Located in Mt. Kisco, New York, there is a second location in the lobby of Northern Westchester Hospital. Simply stated, the more that is sold in Connie’s, the more money is available to give away to charity.

Connie Milstein: Governor of REBNY

Connie (Constance) Milstein is a Governor of the Real Estate Board of New York, (REBNY.)

Begun in the year 1896, the REBNY was the first real estate trade association in the state of New York. Members of the board are among New York City’s most energetic, influential and talented real estate professionals.

As the leading trade association for realtors, the REBNY works for the benefit of its members by promoting public and industry policies. The REBNY often speaks in front of government offices to promote the expansion of New York’s economy, encourage the renovation and development of residential and commercial property, improve the city’s appeal for investors and help with property management.