Samsung Electronics brought together former President Bill Clinton and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to help raise donations for Samsung’s “Four Seasons of Hope” crusade.
The event, which raised over $200,000 from organizations and companies who attended a gala luncheon at the Cipriani Hotel here, promoted four different foundations represented by Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Joe Torre, Boomer Esiason and Arnold Palmer.
During the event, Samsung arranged to have Clinton introduce Johnson and Giuliani introduce Torre. The meeting of the politicians from opposite parties sparked gossip in local newspapers that morning that special arrangements were demanded from one or both parties to ensure the two men would not be present in the same room at the same time.
As luck would have it, however, Clinton and Giuliani did meet and politely shook hands as Giuliani entered the event while Clinton made his exit.
NBC sports announcer and talk show host Bob Costas appeared as the day’s emcee.
The Samsung “Four Seasons of Hope” initiative was launched in 2002 with the mission of raising awareness and funds through national retail promotions with Best Buy, RadioShack, Sears and CompUSA. In the past year, the program has raised over $1 million for charity.
