Each year, The Pilates Advantage owner Mary Beth Young chooses a charity to benefit from a fundraising event. This past Nov. 11-13, Young selected Laurel House as the beneficiary because of her close connection to the organization after it supported and provided assistance to her and her family during her son Colin’s struggle with addiction.
Colin died of an overdose in 2021. Young shared their story and hosted the fundraiser in his honor to raise awareness and remove the stigma around addiction and overdose.
This year The Pilates Advantage fundraiser raised $10,582, the most that Young has raised since she started holding the events.
The fundraiser included a Holiday Sip & Shop with nine local vendors selling their wares, a round-robin workout and sales of a custom T-shirt with the phrase “Healthy Minds Healthy Body” printed on the back.
With over 200 participants, Young was thrilled with the results. “We are so appreciative of our pilates community and how they got involved and showed up on a rainy night to support the Sip & Shop Fundraiser and then came back to workout on Sunday for the round robin.”
Linda Autore, President and CEO of Laurel House, Inc. of Stamford, expressed her gratitude for the over $10,000 in donations from the Pilates Advantage community, made in memory of Colin Young.
“This significant support will go toward the operation of Resources to Recover, a free service of Laurel House that connects families with expert help for mental health concerns. Resources to Recover receives no public funding but served 1.1 million unique visitors over the last 12 months and responded to nearly 2,000 requests for personalized service by our resource specialists.”