Liam Neeson, Howard Stern and Beth Ostrosky Stern, John McEnroe and Patti Smyth, Joel Coen, Frances McDormand, Michael McGlone, and Kelly Klein are among the La Palestra devotees coming out to support the full service, individualized work out program’s first Hamptons benefit on Saturday, August 3, 2013, morning and evening. BeBe Winans, Counting Crows’ Adam Duritz, and Ray Chew and the American Idol Band will be among the performers. Harlow’s Richie Notar, Sam Talbot, and David Burke will provide gala food. Melani Nardone, Thomas Gardner, Mark Jacobs, Ciaran Friel, are on the Board of Directors, along with La Palestra founders Pat and Deborah Manocchia. It will be at the East Hampton Studio in Wainscott.
During the day a La Palestra exclusive exercise class for adults will be from 9-11 AM and family classes at 10:30 AM. Sam Talbot will cater lunch.
La Palestra’s clientele — upscale, wellness oriented, and totally devoted to the program — are the backbone of the event out here. “Eighty-five per cent of our people are in the Hamptons,” Pat Manocchia said. “The rest are probably on a boat somewhere in the Mediterranean.”
Arguably the most comprehensive and exclusive wellness center in the city, La Palestra facilities provide exercise, medical, holistic, nutritional, behavioral and any other expertise deemed necessary for health and longevity. There are two facilities open to the public and five in-house centers in some of Manhattan’s most iconic buildings. Creating a program for clients’ children aged five months to five years in those buildings provided the incubator for La Palestra Kids.
Three years ago, the Manocchia’s took that brand of total fitness to underprivileged East Harlem kids, funding out of their own pockets. It expanded to the point where it needed to become an official charity, gaining 501c3 status a few months ago.
Deborah had gotten to know the outreach programs as a social worker. “She was always surprised at how one dimensional the programs were,” Pat Manocchia told us. “They were more about entertaining the kids. Our whole modus operendi is teaching. We said we can do better. Nobody needs to be reminded of the statistics, but everyone knows childhood obesity is a big deal. Diseases when they’re young get worse and cost everyone a lot of money. Although we prefer to think of it as a moral imperative, this is also a very important investment in the economy for the next three to 40 years.”
Get tickets at lapalestrakids.com.