Special Care Planning Luncheon at Mass Mutual, Catered by JoJo's Healthy Life Café and Jack Mungovan of Infusion

Several Pelham residents and special needs activists attended a warm and informative Special Care Planning Luncheon at Mass Mutual of Westchester on September 24th in Tarrytown. Financial Advisor Joanne Amorosi, CFP, ChSNC (also of Pelham) and Managing Director Stuart Flaum presented some of their innovative programs designed to support and empower families of children with special needs. Participants were encouraged to discuss the special financial and other challenges faced by families in the special needs community. In attendance from Pelham were: SEPTA co-presidents Meredith Ohmes and Christine Gesky-Farahat; Katharine Page, co-founder of Confident Kid Club, an educational program offering social skills classes for children; and Barbara Boroson, national speaker on autism spectrum disorders and author of Autism Spectrum Disorders in the Mainstream Classroom: How to Reach and Teach Students with ASDs (Scholastic). Also present were representatives from Heartsong, a creative arts therapy program offering art, music, dance, and drama to individuals with special needs; and from YAI's (Young Adult Institute) Day Habilitation Program for people with disabilities. 

A distinct highlight and remarkable synchronicity came in the form of lunch, which was coincidentally catered by none other than Pelham's own Jack Mungovan, co-founder and co-owner of Infusion: An American Tapas Music Lounge (www.infusionny.com). Wearing a different hat as a job coach for Community Living Corporation (CLC) in Mount Kisco, Mungovan catered the Tarrytown event with his Healthy Lifestyles team from CLC—a professional staff composed of adults with disabilities. 

Infusion, the pair's newest venture, aspires to further their commitment to run socially conscious businesses. As soon as Infusion is turning a steady profit, Mongovan and his partner plan to donate a percentage of all quarterly food sale profits to various charities and causes. They also invite charitable organizations to hold fundraising events at Infusion, pledging to donate a percentage of the net food sale profits from any event directly to the organization's charity. Mugovan says that the restaurant's goal is to "infuse" great food and fun with charitable giving, in the hopes of making Infusion "not only the best restaurant in Westchester, but the best restaurant for Westchester."