DSEA SupplySide East Fundraising Dinner a Roaring Success

May 02, 2006

Sponsorships by Capsugel and The Vitamin Shoppe Allow All Proceeds to Go to DSEA Initiatives

SECAUCUS, NJ – The Dietary Supplement Education Alliance (DSEA) fundraising dinner at SupplySide East, which was held on Tuesday, May 2, 2006 in the renowned Park & Orchard Restaurant, was quite possibly the group’s most successful fundraising event to-date, and without a doubt the most fun. The dinner, which was co-sponsored by Capsugel and The Vitamin Shoppe, culminated in the attendees bidding ferociously, and uproariously, for prizes and perks.

A lively auction, led by Elliott Balbert, founder of Natrol, began with two tickets to a Yankees/Sox game donated by The Ullman Shapiro Ullman law firm. This touched off a flurry of bidding that reached its peak with NBTY and VSI battling it out. NBTY ultimately scored. Next, EuroPharma jumped in with Green Bay Packers tickets, with New Hope and Capsugel splitting the prize after heated bidding. Trish Balbert, a holistic health care practitioner in New York City, donated three months of healthy lifestyle counseling, which set off another round of competitive bidding, ultimately won by Virgo Publishing. The outpouring of support for DSEA included additional donations from Inverness Medical, Herbalife, EuroPharma, Zila, NBTY, The Shelton Group, TABS Media, and many others. The fundraising culminated in the Vitamin Shoppe offering to match other dinner donations.

"While we expected the dinner to be another sell-out, we didn’t anticipate the overwhelming generosity in support for our initiatives" said Jon Benninger, president of DSEA. "Clearly our programs are having an effect, and industry sees that supporting our efforts is good for their businesses. And judging from how hard everyone was laughing, it was a very fun dinner."

The money raised will fund DSEA's initiatives, including the third Lewin Group Health Impact Report. This report focuses on the health status of diabetes patients who take supplements. In addition, attendees received the advance release of the new DSEA Field Guide to Herbs. This guide, a handy reference to help legislators, media and consumers feel confident about the safety and efficacy of herbal products will be widely distributed.

The generous co-sponsorship from Capsugel and The Vitamin Shoppe ensured that 100 percent of the proceeds from the $250 per person dinner will benefit DSEA education and communications initiatives.

DSEA, formed in 2001 to communicate the benefits of dietary supplements, is a not for profit organization supported by over 100 companies within the dietary supplement industry. Board members include: Elliott Balbert, Natrol (NTOL); Valerie Bell, Canadian Health Food Association (CHFA); Jon Benninger, Virgo Publishing; Fred Linder, New Hope Natural Media; Michael McGuffin, American Herbal Products Association (AHPA); David Morrison, The Vitamin Shoppe; Marlene Ross, Nature’s Bounty (NBTY); David Seckman, National Nutritional Foods Association (NNFA), and Bob Whitelaw, Capsugel.

Contact: Deb Knowles at 941-349-9044 or debknowles@supplementinfo.org