Inaugural Fundraising Event

Thank you to everyone who attended our inaugural event! It was an incredible evening full of art, music, and friends. All proceeds when toward You Got This, Kid! Leadership Foundation's mission to develop young leaders through immersive learning experiences while driving positive change for those living with lupus and for our environment.

The event included a silent auction & features from:

Henry Ristuccia, Street Photographer, view his photos on Instagram
Mike Juergens, Founder of the Bhutan Wine Company,
Certified Specialist of Wine and Certified Sommelier
Original artwork by Alexia Papavasilakis, illustrator of
YOU GOT THIS, KID! Words of Advice for Young Leaders
Performances by the Wharton Institute of Performing Arts
Book signings by Author and YGTK! Co-Founder Chuck Saia
Impact Table sponsored by Quinnipiac University

Henry Ristuccia

YGTK! is proud to have Henry Ristuccia, Street Photographer, and his photos featured at our event.

Henry is a native New Yorker who currently resides in South Florida, with significant portions of time spent traveling. He continuously seeks ways to create motivating energy for himself, positive energy for others, and supportive energy for his community and our society. This can be seen throughout his photography.

In addition to his passion for photography, Henry is the President of Mt. Pleasant Animal Shelter in East Hanover,

New Jersey. He also serves on the boards of Picnic Corporation (a cybersecurity company), The Bhutan Wine Company and is an Investment Partner and Advisor at York IE (a highly rated venture capital firm). Henry recently retired from Deloitte, where he held various global and domestic leadership positions.

Henry has generously offered to donate all proceeds of his photos sold at the YGTK! event in support of our mission; to foster the development of young leaders while driving positive change for people with Lupus and our environment.

Michael Juergens

Michael Juergens is a senior partner with a Big Four consulting firm, where he runs the Winery Solutions and Services practice, overseeing the portfolio of services the firm provides to wineries. He is also a certified specialist of wine, a certified sommelier, and a Stage 2 candidate to become the 61st American to qualify as a Master of Wine.

Michael has written a number of books on wine, and runs the wildly popular Drinking & Knowing Things wine blog.

He is the founder of the Bhutan Wine Company, and is leading the development of the wine industry in this magical Himalayan country.

He owns the award winning SoCal Rum company, which was recently awarded the highest point score in history for any silver rum (95 points).

Michael also is a professor at the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of CA, Irvine.

Michael plays the drums in a punk rock band, and spends his free time running adventure races in exotic locales around the world, building hot rods, diving with great white sharks, and racing motorcycles.

Alexia Papavasilakis

Alexia is a New York-based artist who is currently pursuing her Masters at The New York Art Academy after graduating with a BFA in Illustration from the Parsons School of Design. YOU GOT THIS, KID! Words of Advice for Young Leaders is the first full-length book that her work has been published in, but over the past couple of years, she has done editorial for Slate Magazine and Bias Journal of Dress Practice.

Alexia also illustrates freelance and occasionally displays her work in galleries across New York City. Sustainability is an issue that always struck her interest, so from being a conscious consumer to being a conscious producer of art, she is willing to lend a hand to the environment in any way she can.