Friends Of Mercy Holding Annual Fundraising Dinner For Hospital

The Friends of Mercy Medical Center will hold its 52nd Annual Gentlemen’s St. Patrick’s Dinner on Thursday, March 15 at the Hempstead Golf and Country Club.

Proceeds from the dinner will go towards an inpatient hospice unit. Good Shepherd Hospice is developing a 12-bed inpatient hospice unit on the campus of Mercy Medical Center. A dedicated inpatient hospice unit provides care to hospice patients whose symptoms cannot be managed in the home environment due to the need for complex treatments and frequent medication dose changes. Currently, Catholic Health Services, through Good Shepherd, has only one other facility of this kind, a 16-bed unit in Port Jefferson.

Construction is to begin this month, with completion scheduled for later this year. Having a dedicated inpatient hospice unit on Mercy’s campus will improve the hospital's ability to manage the symptoms of terminally ill patients in an acute care specialty setting and strengthen the ability to meet mission needs as a faith-based system.

Traditionally, the funds raised from the previous year’s events have been presented in a check at the Gentlemen’s Dinner. This year’s check will mark the 52nd year of giving to Mercy Medical Center. In addition to being an evening of fundraising, the dinner also honors two residents from the Mercy community. This year's honorees are Christopher Kearns and Rom Steimel.

Kearns, of Rockville Centre, is currently co-head of the corporate finance practice group at Berkley Research Group, LLC (BRG), a multinational strategic advisory and expert consulting firm. He is recognized nationally as an expert in corporate restructuring, and has been the primary financial adviser to parties in interest in numerous complex, multinational matters. He has been a testifying expert, adviser or responsible officer in many well-known corporate distressed situations, including Energy Future Holdings, Lyondell Chemical, Peabody Energy, MF Global, Nortel, Gleacher and Enron.

Kearns started his professional career as an auditor at Arthur Andersen LLP, where he met his wife, Mary Beth. After serving as a corporate officer at Bristol-Myers Squibb, he joined FTI Consulting and later was a founder and managing partner of Capstone Advisory Group, LLC. The Capstone practice joined BRG in 2015.

A past president and former co-chaired the Mercy Ball and the St. Patrick’s Dinner, Kearns has been a member of the Friends of Mercy for years. He also has been involved with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for over 20 years. He is a past Chairman of the New York City chapter and a member of the National Board of Representatives. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Long Island Chapter.

Kearns is also a past recipient of the Human Relations Award from the American Jewish Committee. Kearns and his wife were the parent honorees for the inaugural ball for Holy Trinity High School and recently were honored by the Rockville Centre Lions Club.

Kearns has lived in Rockville Centre with his wife Mary Beth since they bought their first house there in 1985. They are the proud parents of four daughters: Meghan, Catie, Emily, and Bridget.

Steimel, of Oceanside, has been a member of Catholic Health Services of Long Island for 18 years, beginning his career at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in April 2000. In September 2006, Steimel was promoted to Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Finance at Mercy Medical Center and remained in that role until October 2015, when he was promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer at St. Joseph Hospital. In December 2015, Steimel returned to Mercy as Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer and maintained his role at St. Joseph Hospital. Last February, after serving St. Joseph Hospital for two years, Steimel was asked to focus his full leadership efforts solely at Mercy Medical Center.

He is a supporter and member of the Friends of Mercy, and was honored at the 2014 Friends of Mercy Golf Classic and in 2015 he received the Sister Mary Nadine Casey, CIJ Award at the Mercy Ball.

Steimel graduated from the State University of New York at Oneonta in 1985, receiving a Bachelors degree in Accounting, and furthered his education by obtaining a Masters of Business Administration in Taxation from St. Johns University in 1999.

He has served on the board of Rotacare since 2011 and has supported many other institutions, including Kellenberg Memorial High School, Oceanside Knights of Columbus and St. Anthony’s Church. He has been the treasurer of Oceanside Stallions Roller Hockey since 2005.

Ron resides in Oceanside with his wife Susan and their two sons, Tyler and Ryan.

Photo: Chris Kearns, left, and Ron Steimel. Courtesy Friends of Mercy Medical Center.