Saturday night, May 14th, Boghos Properties and The Alexander and Linda Milley Foundation will be hosting the 8th annual “Toast to St. Jude” Gala at the plush Revere Hotel in Boston Common.
Siobhan Dunn, the team leader behind Toast to St. Jude says this year’s fundraising and awareness gala will be a lounge style cocktail reception featuring an array of hors d’oeuvres, open beer x wine bar, dancing, live entertainment, silent auction and a premier raffle.
“We’re super excited to be back at the Revere Hotel, and for everything we have planned,” Dunn says.
This year’s celebration will feature an expanded lay-out with two floors of entertainment and festivities.
The previous seven “St. Jude Toasts” have established a buzz throughout Boston as one of the more prestigious and “can’t miss” annual events in the city. From the sound of things, this year’s gala is only going to continue to build on that legacy.
“It’s going to be absolutely amazing,” Matt Coviello, who has been on the Toast to St. Jude committee for the last six years along with his girlfriend Kris McCann says. “We’re on track to break a million dollars raised since the inception of the event, which is pretty great.”
The celebration, of course, is all to benefit the lifesaving mission of St. Jude’s Children Hospital.
St. Jude, founded in 1962, under the premise that “no child should die under the dawn of life” is a pediatric treatment and research facility focused on children’s catastrophic diseases, particularly leukimia and other cancers. St. Jude costs about $2.8 million a day to run, but patients are not charged for their care.
The hospital and research center heavily rely on money raised from benefits like the “Toast to St. Jude” to help fund their care and research for children.
Discoveries made with the support of these donations and fundraising have profoundly changed how doctors treat children with cancer and other catastrophic illnesses.
Since St. Jude was established, the survival rate for acute lymphoblastic leukimia, the most common type of childhood cancer, has increased from 4 percent in 1962 to 94 percent today. During this time, the overall survival rate for childhood cancers has risen from 20 percent to 80 percent.
St. Jude has treated children from across the United States and from more than 70 countries.
“This is why benefits like this are so important,” Dunn says.
Doors open at 8:30pm on Saturday 5/14 at The Revere, and the gala will run until midnight Formal attire is recommended, so definitely dress to impress if you are attending! Tickets are still available, and the Toast to St. Jude committee encourages anyone to come by, even if only for a portion of the evening.
“Every smiling face and dollar raised makes a difference,” Coviello says. “Even if you can only join us for an hour, we hope to see you!”
Highlights from “Toast to St. Jude” previous galas can be viewed here.
