PHOTOS & VIDEO: Fifty participants gathered to celebrate their accomplishments on Wednesday evening, February 20,2013. Participants nationwide spent the last 120 days challenging each other in a grueling and invigorating marathon weight loss program. Each participant fundraised a minimum of $2,500, with the full amount donated to Imrei Binah, an innovative and highly effective program for the autism population of Lakewood.

Lose4Autism, where every loser is a winner, proved to be a resounding success in this inaugural year.

The weigh-out event was held at Citron and Rose, the beautiful new award winning restaurant in Lower Merion, PA, with many traveling from Lakewood aboard the luxurious Lose4Autism coach bus.

Together the participants fundraised over $180,000 and lost a total of almost 2,200 lbs, with an average weight loss of 50 lbs. The Weigh-Out Event was sponsored by Meir Singer, Moishe Glatzer, Yossi Lowenthal, Shmuly Werdiger, and an anonymous donor. The winners were presented with their prizes, top fundraisers received beautiful crystal awards, and beautiful display awards were distributed to participants.

As earlier reported, Elchonon Goldstein lost the largest percentage of weight by losing 38.2% of his starting weight (104 lbs) and was awarded the grand prize of $25,000. He immediately gave 10% back to the children of Imrei Binah.

Maier Arm lost 100 lbs and was awarded the second prize of $10,000.

Nochum Stein, Boruch Cohen, and Moshe Grossman each won $2,500 for being the monthly winners for the most weight loss.

The prizes were sponsored by The Gym Lakewood, MedWaste, Jay’s Bus Service, TechKeys, Senior Planning, Town Appliance, Duvys Media, SuperStop, The Hat Box, and Allstate Auto Collision.

In the 18K Chai Club Tzali Chopp fundraised over $20,000 and Yankie Judowitz brought in over $18,000. Daniel Glenner collected $13,000 in the 10K club and Zalmen Sorotzkin, Elchonon Goldstein, and Matis Manela rounded out the top fundraisers in the 5K Club.

18K Chai Club member Yankie Judowitz won a flight to Israel for being the first to raise $10,000.

Shmuel Lubin sponsored a Miami trip for two during a one day promotional event. The prize was won by Binyomin Shulman, who raised $2,000 on that day.

$100 Hat Box gift cards were awarded to participants for every $500 raised during the last three weeks of the program. Sixty gift cards were distributed.

For raising more than $10,000 during the last three weeks, $10k Club Member Daniel Glenner won $2,100 at the Hat Box.

A women’s weigh loss challenge is in the works. Check http://www.lose4autism.org/ for details in the coming days.

“Imrei Binah thanks Rabbi Sruli Fried and Rabbi Yisrael Friedman for all their support and input; without them Lose4Autism would be just another dream (not come true). Many thanks as well to Mrs. Fried for her talents and creativity which have helped tremendously,” Lose 4 Autsim said.

Imrei Binah is a tuition-free program that provides speech therapy, occupational therapy, music therapy, physical therapy, and applied behavioral analysis therapy alongside an academic model focused on school readiness. The staff-student ratio is 1:1. Through a concentration of individualized curriculums that focus exclusively on autism related challenges, Imrei Binah maximizes the potential of children with autism so that they may grow to be independent and socially integrated members of society. TLS.