Contact: Mina Georgiou
(973) 808-8287
MGeorgiou@innovativetravelmarketing.com

Bonnie Reuben
(212) 582-4551
reubencomm@aol.com

For Immediate Release

In just 10 months of operation, the ITM Hospitality Fund has provided no-cost hotel accommodations to over 150 needy patients and their families, who face the daunting experience and expense of traveling to New York City for critical medical treatment.

As the only city-wide program of its kind, the Fund's contribution of hotel rooms is devoted to easing the emotional and financial burden of being away from home to receive urgent medical care for life threatening conditions, and to afford patients the presence of family members. The ITM Hospitality Fund has partnered with over eight, New York area medical centers (including NYU, Mt. Sinai, NY- Presbyterian, Memorial Sloan Kettering and others) to donate lodging to needy patients being treated at these facilities and their families.

o-founded by Jody Merl, president of Innovative Travel Marketing (ITM), the leading barter company specializing in hotel/travel advertising and marketing, and Michael Stoler, president of Princeton Commercial Corp. and an active health-care philanthropist, the ITM Hospitality Fund was established by Jody with an endowment of hotel rooms from ITM barter inventory in Manhattan. It is administered directly with the hospitals' departments of social work, physicians or medical agencies/associations. Beneficiaries are only responsible for the New York State and City hotel occupancy and sales tax on the room.

Each case is poignant in its own right, given the trauma of uncertain prognosis and the fragility of each family's situation. "The impetus for creating the Fund was to put barter to work for a meaningful cause, to use our available inventory to aid the less fortunate," said Merl. "We pamper families who are in a very fragile state with the convenience and comfort BY affording them hotel rooms in their time of need."

Added Stoler, "It is an enormous help to minimize the extraordinary toll and expenses of travel to receive critical medical treatment. It is a gift to enable loved ones to be in close proximity to the patient in order to heal the spirit and support recovery," he continued.

The ITM Hospitality Fund is located on the Internet at www.itmhospitalityfund.com. The ITM Hospitality Fund welcomes donations of New York City hotel rooms on a space available basis.

Here are just some of the personal stories positively impacted by the Fund (in accordance with the HIPPA Act, names of individuals connected with cases cannot be disclosed).

• A 28-year old father of three with inoperable brain cancer, is placed in a hospice in Manhattan. His wife, their kids and aunt and uncle require lodging to share his last days with him.
  
  
• An 11-year old from Maryland with a diseased intestine required a large intestinal transplant at Mt. Sinai Medical Center. Her mother and father remained with her for the duration of the procedure.



• A 25-year old man, recently married, has undergone radical surgery for a cancerous tumor on his spine. His parents and two sisters traveled from Upstate NY to be with him.



• The family of a 10-year old boy from the Midwest, recently diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, discovers that NYU's Hassenfeld Children's Center is the only place in the U.S. where an experimental protocol exists for his condition. The boy's treatment, supervised by the leading children's oncologist, necessitated a living facility for himself, his parents, brother and sister.



• 10-year old from California, travels with family to NY Weill Cornell for specialized cancer treatment and protocol. Parents and siblings housed in Manhattan.



• An elderly man from the Jersey Shore, 120 miles from Manhattan, underwent a mitra/aortic valve replacement operation by a special team at NYU. He wanted his 76-year old wife by his side.



• A seven-year old boy, a facial burn victim from Indiana, has traveled with his parents to New York City for burn surgery at Mt. Sinai.



• A 38-year old single mother of two young children with severe metastasis breast cancer requires a specialized protocol of experimental chemotherapy. The debilitating treatment makes it difficult for her to travel each day to and from her home in eastern Long Island.



• The parents of an eight-month old baby boy residing in Albany, New York, receive an urgent call that a kidney is available for their son. They immediately travel to New York City to a pediatric neo-natal transplant center. The parents and grandparents require hotel accommodations.



• 51-year old woman from New Jersey, underwent very serious chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering; she was accompanied by her mother.



• From Flatrock, Michigan, a 51-year old man with metastic prostate cancer came to New York with his wife, for a specialized clinical trial at New York Hospital/Cornell Medical College.



• Hailing from Watertown, New York, approximately 500 miles from New York City, a patient at NYU Medical Center required a second liver transplant. Due to the nature of his condition, he has to be seen as an outpatient at the Medical Center.



• A 70-year old priest from the Dominican Republic requires very difficult spine surgery at the Hospital for Joint Diseases, and requires extensive pre-surgery testing.



• A 55-year old woman from Ontario, Canada, diagnosed with paratenial mesothaelomia, needed chemo following surgery at Columbia Presbyterian. She was accompanied by her husband.



• Having undergone specialized liver cancer treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering with her husband present, a 66-year old woman from Lima, Ohio, needed additional surgery for an insertion tube.



• A 73-year old woman from Western PA, was diagnosed with leio-meio sarcoma that spread to multiple sites (lung and spinal column) from the uterus. This sarcoma is not normally responsive to treatment but two physicians at NYU and St. Vincent's, respectively, are extremely well known for their work in this area. The patient had tests over several days and thoracic surgery.



• An 88-year old resident of Lake Worth, Florida, with facial cancer, requires 20 radiation treatments as an outpatient at the St. Vincent Comprehensive Cancer Center on West 15th Street. He traveled with his wife to Manhattan.



• Referred by the American Cancer Society, a woman, age 50, from Anoka, Minnesota, with adenoid cancer, traveled to NYC for tests and meetings with doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering.



• A 54-year old lymphoma patient from Western New Jersey, was having stem cell surgery as an out patient over five days.



• A 79-year old from Hialea, Florida, visiting relatives in New York, stricken with neurological conditions. Patient hospitalized in Manhattan in an intensive care unit until transferred to a critical heart ICU at NYU for insertion of defibrillator. Fund provided room for wife and daughter.



• 38-year old NJ woman undergoes specialized breast cancer protocol at Breast Cancer Oncology Center of Memorial Sloan Kettering. Patient and relatives are provided rooms in Manhattan.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Jody Merl, Michael Stoler, and other hospital representatives available for interviews.

Innovative Travel Marketing (ITM) is a niche, barter consulting firm for the travel industry specializing in media placement and sales promotional services. Associates have over 40 years of hotel sales and marketing experience. ITM's customized services provide clients, which include some of the finest hotels, resorts and airlines worldwide, with a competitive advantage by optimizing occupancy and maximizing profit through barter. Established in 1992 by Jody B. Merl, ITM has earned the reputation as the most highly regarded barter advertising firm for the travel industry. ITM is headquartered in New York City.