This event has been postponed due to weather.
Come. Drink. Nosh. Network.
Celebrate Chanukah and join the Vilna for our signature Happy Hour on the Hill networking event featuring a panel discussion on the "Sporting Success: Before, During and After". How do organized sports help unite and focus children? What does success in sports, beyond simply winning and being the best mean? What happens when the glory is over? Three amazing and accomplished athletes and organizers join us to discuss these questions and so much more.
Dan Schlesinger began running as a teenager and competed at Yale College, where he broke Frank Shorter's 6 mile record -- a record that still stands -- Dan rose to prominence as a world class runner by placing third in the New York Marathon in 1982. Later, while represented by Nike, he ran his fastest marathon: 2:11.36. Dan also competed in the 10k, running a time of 28:36 while preparing for the US Olympic Trials. Dan qualified for two Olympic Trials at the marathon distance but could not contest either race due to injury.
Robert Lewis, Jr. is a nationally recognized thought leader, public speaker and passionate advocate for urban youth. Known as a bridge-builder and catalyst for collaboration between diverse business, civic and public sectors, Robert has deep experience with grassroots, community-based organizations throughout Greater Boston and government entities, colleges, sports franchises and philanthropic foundations throughout the country. A 2015 Boston Magazine cover story listed Robert among the city’s 50 Most Powerful Leaders, calling him “a tireless advocate for inner-city kids.” In 2013, Robert left his high profile position at The Boston Foundation to pursue a lifelong dream to launch The BASE. The BASE is a model and methodology that changes the paradigm for urban youth by providing student athletes with the opportunity, knowledge, skills and confidence needed to develop a winning game plan for success both on and off the field. The BASE embodies everything Robert learned as founder of the Boston Astros, a youth baseball team he launched in 1978. Legendary baseball writer Peter Gammons has called The Astros, “Hands-down the best urban baseball program in the country,” and Triple Crown Sports awarded the Astros the 2012 “Team of the Year” award from a field of 40,000.
Jack Fultz is a retired American long-distance runner, who came to prominence in the 1970s after winning the 1976 Boston Marathon, the world's oldest and most established marathon race. Fultz not only finished the Boston Marathon in first place in 1976; in 1995 he added the distinction of finishing in last place as well: Each year, BAA race director Dave McGillivray runs the Boston Marathon course after all the other entrants have started, and nearly all have finished. In 1995 Fultz accompanied him on the run, and, as the two companions crossed the finish line, Fultz slowed down a step, thus making him the actual last official finisher of the day. Fultz qualified for three consecutive United States Olympic Trials marathons in 1972, 1976, and 1980. Because President Jimmy Carter called for a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games, Fultz did not run in the 1980 Olympic Trials. In 1996, Fultz was inducted into the Georgetown University Hall of Fame and on that occasion was invited to the White House to run with then-President Bill Clinton. Also in 1996, Fultz was inducted into the DC Road Runners Hall of Fame. Professionally, Fultz was an adjunct professor of Sport Psychology at Tufts for 26 years and recently retired. He is currently the training advisor for the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge (1990 - present) which recently eclipsed $100 Million in funds raised for cancer research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in our 30 years of existence. In 2019, Fultz biked his 17th consecutive Pan Mass Challenge bike ride with a personal cumulative fund raising total in excess of $200K. The PMC raised $63M for the Jimmy Fund / DFCI in 2019, and in its 40 year history, has raised $717 Million to support cancer research.