Title Boxing Community Aids Hurricane Relief

By Janee Law
jlaw@longislandergroup.com

The Title Boxing Club community of Huntington village and Syosset has banded together to raise funds to aid hurricane victims in Texas, Florida and the Florida Keys.

Danny Cordova, owner of both locations, said funds were raised through a raffle, where members and non-members paid $10 per ticket to win a six-month membership of $873 value. All proceeds collected during the raffle will be donated to DirectRelief.org, a non-profit humanitarian aid organization with a mission to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies.

Both locations began the raffle on Sept. 16 and raised approximately $2,200 in total, with $1,000 from its Syosset location and $1,200 from its Huntington location.

The club matched and exceeded its goal to raise $1,000 at each club, Cordova said. In addition, Cordova vowed to personally match the total amount raised at each club.

The raffle began a movement throughout all 175 Title Boxing Clubs in the country, Cordova said. Once corporate learned of Huntington and Syosset plans to raise funds to aid those affected by hurricanes, other clubs jumped on the bandwagon.

Cordova said he got the idea for the raffle after watching what people had lost in Texas due to Hurricane Harvey and in Florida due to Hurricane Irene.

“You watch these innocent kids, pets and people with nothing so I felt like we had a responsibility here to help,” Cordova said, adding that their motto is “the hurricane is strong but our Title community is stronger.”

Although the raffle is complete, Cordova said members are still sending in donations. He said further donations will be added to what was previously raised and donated to DirectRelief.org on Saturday.

“We were in awe in terms of the generosity and synergy that we created between members, and even non-members, people just walking in here and making donations and buying raffle tickets,” Cordova said. “We were all super surprised because we’ve never done anything like this but the generosity was eye opening to us.”

The raffle winners were picked on Sept. 23, with winners Mary Ellen Prentis, from Huntington, and Yves Siegel, from Syosset. Cordova said both winners decided to pay their winnings forward.

“Both winners didn’t even want the six-month membership. They wanted to roll that into another raffle for Breast Cancer Awareness Month,” he added. “That’s just another testament of how our community is. Their generosity is amazing.”