The 35th edition of the Cures Gala set its target to match its anniversary: $3.5 million, raised in one evening at a private residence in Barrington Hills, Illinois. Gateway for Cancer Research reached the number on Saturday, October 17, and the money has a narrow destination. It funds Phase I and Phase II clinical trials, the early stage studies where a promising treatment first meets patients.
Richard J Stephenson, who founded Gateway in 1991 and is its chairman, hosted the evening with Dr. Stacie J. Stephenson, the organization’s vice chair. The entertainment carried the fundraising. David Foster worked two jobs, emcee and musical director, and the lineup around him included Hugh Jackman, Daniel Emmet, Loren Allred, Lee Greenwood and Sydnie Christmas, with Katharine McPhee joining the group on the night.
Every dollar of the evening goes to trials
The gala’s arithmetic is unusual and worth stating exactly as Gateway reports it. An angel donor covered 100 percent of the evening’s expenses, so ticket sales, sponsorships and donations from the night go directly to the mission rather than to the cost of the party. Gateway says 99 cents of every dollar it receives directly funds early phase trials at research institutions in the United States and abroad.
That model has compounded over 35 years. Since its founding in 1991, Gateway reports raising more than $135 million and impacting more than 30,000 patients worldwide. Early phase trials are the hardest segment of cancer research to fund with glamour, because most of them end in a negative result that still teaches the field something. A gala built to pay for exactly that stage is a deliberate choice about where private money does work that larger funders often skip. The organization’s own account of the evening is in its release via ACCESS Newswire.
Thirty-five years in, the Stephenson family’s gala has a formula that holds: a house in Barrington Hills, a Foster led band, and a room asked to fund the riskiest, earliest science in the building. On Saturday the room answered with the full $3.5 million.
The Social Register’s event directory tracks the season’s galas, benefits, and society evenings. Plan your next evening there.
