BGC Charity Day

Photography by Seth Browarnik on September 13th, 2011 in Celebrity, Charities & Galas

Howard Lutnick, President George W. Bush, La La Vasquez, & Carmelo Anthony

New York, NY – September 12, 2011 – Celebrities from the worlds of film, TV, sport, politics, and fashion hit the phones on the trading floors of Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC Partners, Inc. in New York City today to raise millions for charities at its seventh annual Charity Day. Cantor Fitzgerald is a leading global financial firm and BGC Partners is a leading global intermediary to the wholesale financial markets. This year’s Charity Day commemorates the ten year anniversary of the September 11th attacks.
In New York this year celebrity guests at Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC’s offices included: President George W. Bush, President William J. Clinton, Former New York Governor David Paterson, Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Actors Ben Stiller, Billy Crudup, Daniel Radcliff, Mickey Rourke, Michael J. Fox, Jon Voight, TV personality Kim Kardashian, and Supermodels Petra Nemcova, Carol Alt, Karolina Kurkova, and Kate Upton. Sports icons included: Carmelo Anthony, Eli Manning, Henrik Lundqvist, Ike Davis, John McEnroe, Jared Jeffries, Mark Sanchez, Rex Ryan and Chris Bosh. These and dozens of others joined licensed brokers to conduct transactions with Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC clients on the trading floor.

Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC hold the Charity Day each year to commemorate the 658 employees who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. As Cantor Fitzgerald sought to re-build its business, it restructured its inter-dealer broking operations renaming them “BGC,” in honor of B. Gerald Cantor, Cantor’s cofounder.

Cantor was the worst hit company on 9/11, losing 658 of its employees – two thirds of its workforce at the time. To commemorate those who were lost on the day, every year 100% of Cantor Fitzgerald’s and BGC’s revenues from Charity Day are distributed to dozens of charities around the world. As this year marks the 10th anniversary since the attack, the day will be even more poignant than in previous years.

‘Celebrity brokers’ help raise money by conducting real trades with Cantor Fitzgerald’s and BGC’s clients, which include major banks and investment banks, over the phone from the trading floor alongside a licensed broker. Last year they provided in excess of $10 million to charities globally from this single day.

All revenues generated during the course of the Charity Day are donated to a variety of charitable causes. To date they have raised $65 million globally.

Participating charities from Cantor Fitzgerald include: Action America, Autism Speaks, Children’s Tumor Fund, Fisher Alzheimer, The Readiness Center in St Joseph Michigan, Good Shepherds, Flight 93 National Memorial, Team Tomorrow Inc., Deafness Research Foundation, Happy Hearts Fund, Dream Granting Program, Friends of Firefighters, Friends of LESC Inc., Noreen Fraser Foundation, Peter C. Alderman Foundation, Martin Luther King Jr. Institute, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Let’s Get Ready, Reach The World, September 11th Education Trust, Todd Ouida Children’s Foundation, 9/11 Day of Service (My Good Deed), The 52nd Street Project, Samaritans of NYC, Tribute WTC, Tuesday’s Children, Voices of 9/11, and more. More details can be found at: http://www.cantor.com/CD/charity_day_2011

Participating charities from BGC include: Alliance for Lupus Foundation, Americares, Blessings in a Backpack, Boomer Esiason Foundation, Building Homes for Heroes, Eli Manning Foundation, Felix Organization, Fire Family Transport Foundation, Garden of Dreams, Harlem RBI, Happy Hearts Fund, Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum, Make-a-wish Foundation, Services for the Underserved, Solving Kids Cancer, St. Christopher’s Inc, Tony Alt Foundation, The Carmelo Anthony Foundation, The John and Patty McEnroe Foundation, USTA Serves, Wheelchair Sports Federation, Wounded Warrior Project, Worldwide Orphans Foundation and YCS.