"It's great to be young and a Yankee."

I'm going to depart from baseball coverage to let everyone know about a cause that my family (particularly my sister) holds close to heart. It starts on a day that you all probably remember, but not for the reasons my sister remembers it...

On October 17, 2004, I remember watching the Yankees lose to the Red Sox which was the start of the 4 game comeback that broke every Yankee fan's heart and psyche and morale.

I remember calling my sister--then a student at Georgetown--prepared to have a heated game postmortem. When she picked up and started talking, the game was forgotten, as she told me about the real loss of the day: her close friend Dan Rigby has passed away when his offcampus house caught on fire.

Since then, a The Friends of Rigby Foundation has been established to promote fire safety in college housing.  Formed in October 2006, the Foundation seeks to establish a network of financial and organizational support to educate and assist students at colleges and universities in order to prevent this tragedy from happening again.

The primary objective is to build a connection between students and local firefighters as well as to provide such necessities as fire inspections, smoke detectors, and fire extinguishers in off-campus homes.

Every year, the Friend of Rigby host a charity gala around St. Patrick's day to raise money for this cause. This year, the proceeds from the event will be going towards the Point Breeze Volunteer Fire Department which was devastated during Hurricane Sandy.

I'm writing to invite all of you to attend this event. Every year I go trumps the previous year, it's really quite amazing. There's dancing, music, food, auction...and this year it will be held at Irving Plaza. See the details below. It would great to see/meet you there!