It was a beautiful and perfect evening.
Presented by CrossCountry Mortgage, Inc, with incredible support from the Ryan Callahan Foundation, Papa Johns, and the 13 Ugly Men (among many others), Beat Nb's Gold: An Evening to Beat Childhood Cancer raised over $265,000 on Sept 8 at Armature Works in Tampa.
350+ caring, passionate people came together to celebrate how we are beating cancer for KIDS. Alongside Tampa Bay community leaders were the true heroes - over a dozen families whose kids have battled, or are currently fighting childhood cancer.
Our lead researcher, Dr Giselle Sholler, was in town from Grand Rapids, MI, as well as our board president and founder Patrick Lacey.
The evening was spent celebrating the work Beat Nb is driving to beat neuroblastoma and other cancers. September is childhood cancer awareness month (the ribbon color is gold, hence the name of the event). We honored the families in the room whose children are beating - or have beaten - neuroblastoma, and our hearts were broken alongside those who had lost a son or daughter to cancer.
We also premiered our latest video: Beating Cancer, featuring real-life hero Cambri, whose fight vs neuroblastoma cancer is very real, although the video fictionalizes a bit.
Our Executive Director, Kyle Matthews, shared a song written for he and his wife Robyn's son Ezra, who died in 2010 from neuroblastoma. You can listen to it under this text section.
Locally owned Papa John's franchisees announced their September partnership with Beat Nb, donating $25,000 in celebration of their 25 years operating in Tampa Bay. The Ryan Callahan Foundation, led by Tampa Bay Lightning Alt Captain Ryan Callahan and his wife Kyla, also donated $25,000. And Lightning players Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, and Dan Girardi added yet another $15,000 to that total. A local group of philanthropists, the 13 Ugly Men, committed $25,000 as well - they are making Beat Nb the beneficiary of their upcoming Halloween party in Tampa.
We are beating cancer for kids. The evening felt like a new chapter, a marker as we move forward continuing to put a stop toward this stupid beast called neuroblastoma, a collection of parents, researchers, and supporters who say it is simply NOT right that we're losing our kids. The research consortium we helped to found - and solely fund - is now in 45 hospitals and research institutions worldwide.
This is not pie-in-the-sky hopes and dreams, or emotional stories with nothing behind them. Beat Nb is real hope through effective clinical trials, shared from the very families who are benefiting from this work - or who've lost a child and now drive change forward.
To every one of you who played a part, or who play a part in the work we're doing...
thank you.
Huge, magnificent, heartfelt thanks to our sponsors:
- CrossCountry Mortgage, Inc
- Armature Works
- Chappell Roberts
- St Petersburg Distillery
- Tampa Bay Lightning
- Tampa Bay Rays
- Papa Johns
- 13 Ugly Men
- Ryan Callahan Foundation
- Lyrics for Life
- Landon Outreach Foundation
- TradeStops
- Csenge Advisory Group
- DoMyOwn.com
- Glory Days
- Deliver Media
- Enstar
- Hivelocity
- Sykes
- Hyundai of New Port Richey
- TECO
And to our community partner, Florida Blue.
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