Seena Magowitz event raises $500,000 to fight pancreatic cancer

Hundreds turn out to support mattress industry cause

David Perry -- Furniture Today, December 14, 2011

PHOENIX — The ninth edition of the Seena Magowitz Golf Classic raised approximately $500,000 for pancreatic cancer research and brought together top mattress producers, retailers and suppliers.

Phil Sherman, left, and Phil McCarty, right, both of Customatic Adjustable Bedz, at the Seena Magowitz Golf Classic with tournament founder Roger Magowitz and Dr. Daniel Von Hoff of research organization TGen. On the table are bobblehead versions of Magowitz and Von Hoff.

More than 200 golfers took to the links at the Arizona Biltmore Resort and later joined 200 more event supporters at the gala awards luncheon that is the highlight of the event, which this year was held Dec. 2-4.

There they heard from the event's founder, Roger Magowitz, charitable advisor for Houston-based Mattress Firm, a major sponsor.

Magowitz said his devotion to the event stems from a question he poses to himself: "If not me, then who?"

"The ‘who' is each one of you in this room," he said in his address at the luncheon. "The ‘who' is your business and your friends. The ‘who' is an entire mattress industry united to fighting pancreatic cancer. I've never heard of any entire industry fighting a disease. We can beat this disease."

As his comments suggested, the mattress industry was broadly represented at the Seena Magowitz Golf Classic.

Attendees included top executives at producers Sealy, Serta, Simmons, Tempur-Pedic, Comfort Solutions, International Bedding, Englander, Southerland, Symbol, Sherwood, Carolina Mattress Guild, Pure LatexBliss and Glideaway, among others. The supplier contingent was represented by Protect-A-Bed, Leggett & Platt, Hickory Springs, Customatic Adjustable Bedz, Knickerbocker, Colonial LLC, Fabrictech and GBS Enterprises, among others.

Mattress retailers in attendance included Sit 'n Sleep, Gardena, Calif.; Sleep Doctor Mattress Stores, Caledonia Mich.; Mattress Discounters, Jessup, Md.; Back To Bed, Itasca, Ill.; and Mattress Firm, Houston, among others.

For more details and photos from the tournament, see the Dec. 19 print issue of Furniture/Today.