(openPR) - Mount Vernon, New York-native and CBS 2 (WCBS Channel 2) television meteorologist Elise Finch will be honored with the “Denzel Community Service Award” at the Boys & Girls Club of Mount Vernon’s 100th Anniversary Gala at the Rye Town Hilton (Rye Brook, Westchester County, New York) on Saturday night, March 24, 2012. The award-winning actor Denzel Washington will make the presentation. Washington, the host for the benefit, is a distinguished alumnus of the Boys & Girls Club. For information and reservations call 914.668.9580 or log onto www.bgcmvny.com.

Ms. Finch joins YES Network’s former MLB All-Star Ken Singleton, who will receive the “Denzel Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports” among the honorees.

Ms. Finch has long made community involvement a priority, and will be so honored for those efforts. She has emceed events for the Alzheimer’s Association of Greater New Jersey, the Westchester Library System, the Mount Vernon High School Hall of Fame and also JDRF Walk for a Cure. Ms. Finch is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and the American Meteorological Society. She is a volunteer with the non-profit organization Dress For Success and a contributor to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She is also a patron of The Minisink Spirit, Inc., a non-profit organization that provides adventure camping and leadership training to urban youth in the tri-state area.

About Elise Finch: Elise Finch joined WCBS-TV as weekend meteorologist in April 2007. Previously Finch worked for NBC where she served as a meteorologist for the “Early Today Show,” MSNBC, and NBC Weather Plus.Prior to NBC, Finch was the weekend weather anchor at the CBS affiliate in Phoenix, Arizona. Before that, she reported and anchored at the CBS and FOX affiliates in Youngstown, Ohio. Finch started her career in television behind the scenes at E! Entertainment `Television, where she served as a production coordinator for special projects and live events. She then went on to her first on-air position in news as a night-side reporter for the ABC affiliate in Austin, Minn. Finch was raised in Mount Vernon New York and graduated from Mount Vernon High School. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Georgetown University where she received one of the prestigious President’s Awards. She went on to earn a Master of Science degree in Broadcast Journalism from Syracuse University. Ms. Finch completed the Broadcast Meteorology Program at Mississippi State University and holds the seal of approval from the American Meteorological Society. She currently lives in Manhattan.

About Denzel Washington: Washington is a two-time Emmy Award, two-time Golden Globe Award and Tony Award recipient With encouragement and lessons learned from the Boys & Girls Club, Washington overcame the tough streets to ultimately attend Fordham University in the Bronx, where he gained a roster spot on the freshman basketball team under P.J. Carlesimo, and earned his B.A. in Drama and Journalist at Fordham at Lincoln Center, and then embarked on a four-decade acting career that has been one for the ages. Washington has said that he still applies the same principles in his acting career that he learned when he was a third-grader in the Boys & Girls Club of Mount Vernon. He teamed with director Ron Howard for a public service announcement that shows how the club has impacted his life along with 20 other celebrities and entertainers, who were once members of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Denzel’s career came to prominence on the hit television medical show St. Elsewhere; he received two Academy Awards for Training Day and Glory, and his recent Tony Award for the Broadway hit Fences. In riveting portrayals, Washington has played such true-life characters as Malcolm X, boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, Steve Biko, Melvin B. Tolson, Frank Lucas, and Herman Boone. He starred in the blockbuster Disney film Remember the Titans which grossed over $100 million in the U.S. box office alone.

About the Boys and Girls Club of Mount Vernon Alumni: Along with Washington, distinguished alumni of the Boys & Girls Club of Mount Vernon include: Mount Vernon Mayor Clinton I. Young; historian and author Dr. Larry Spruill, PhD; Jack Haire, the President and CEO of Parade Publications, and former publisher of Time Magazine; the former Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca; former NBA star Gus Williams, who enjoyed a lengthy career with the Seattle SuperSonics, Golden State Warriors and Baltimore Bullets;

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