Originally published in Schneps Media on July 23rd, 2026

The North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, located in Roslyn Heights, raised a record-breaking $300,000 at their 30th Annual Jonathan Krevat Memorial Golf Classic on Monday, June 29.

The golf outing was hosted at Fresh Meadow Country Club with 150 attendees and featured an honoree and a guest speaker.

This year’s honoree was Katy Kamen, an attorney at Groom Law Group and a longtime supporter of the guidance center.

“The work of the Guidance Center ensures that children and families have someone to turn to when they need help most,” Kamen said in a press release. “It creates hope where there may be fear, and strength where there may be uncertainty.”

Sammie O’Connor is a 13-year-old client at the guidance center who has been receiving their services since she was in second grade. As this year’s guest speaker, she shared her story of how the guidance center helped her overcome challenges associated with her anxiety.

“I can’t count the number of people who came up afterwards, just to say how proud they were of her,” said the guidance center’s associate executive director, Jenn Rush. “That was really a highlight, I think, for many people.”

Sammie said in a press release that her journey with anxiety is not over, but the guidance center has given her the resources and strategies to continue moving forward.

“I am so grateful for everything I’ve learned and for the opportunity to grow in such a supportive environment,” Sammie said.

This year’s donations to the guidance center will allow them to expand their services outside their main offices.

“We’re really focused on putting one of our clinicians in a family homeless shelter in Nassau County as a way to embed our services for folks that can’t get to us,” Rush said. “Funds like this allow us the room to step out of what we typically do.”

Rush said that the shelter is for women and children, the guidance center’s target group to serve.

“Doing something like this allows us to get in the community to try to address issues that we see families struggling with before it becomes a crisis,” Rush said.

Rush said she speaks to the different clinicians at the guidance center and asks if they have had any clients with a recent success story that they would like to share. Sammie was given free rein for what she prepared for her speech.

“She jumped at it,” Rush said. “It was a challenge for her that she wanted to take.”

Rush said that within those $300,000, the most beneficial type of donation the guidance center can receive is unrestricted funds.

“It allows us to plug it into whatever sort of programmatic need we have in the moment,” Rush said.

The guidance center hosts four major fundraisers a year, with the golf outing being one of the largest. Rush said the small team of event organizers plans these fundraisers year round, and they are supported by their volunteer network.

“We have a great volunteer team, both external and internal to the agency,” Rush said. “It does take a village, and there’s so many different ways someone can be involved with the agency.”

Rush said that while the honorees and guest speakers are important to the guidance center, she also recognizes the behind-the-scenes work of the clinicians who support their clients’ growth.

“While that’s not celebrated publicly, for me, that’s as rewarding as seeing Sammie be able to speak and tell her story,” Rush said. “It does take a whole team to get an individual from a place of darkness or struggle into a place of functionality and joy.”

The routine donors, philanthropists, and businesspeople in attendance at the golf outing are part of the global picture that it takes to deliver counseling services to the community.

“Many people have heard of the guidance center, but may not know the depth of services we provide,” Rush said. “While the fundraising allows us to continue to be creative and expand, the success really comes from the dedication of the folks that do the hard work.”

The guidance center’s next event will be their annual Hope and Healing Gala on Friday, Sept. 18.