GALA FOR LIFE

An elegant whoosh

Cancer Institute fundraiser brings in more than $1 million

In Little Rock, black-tie fundraisers are a regular la promenade d'elegance. Well, really more elegance than promenade. Just inside of the dinner hour and outside of the Wally Allen Ballroom on Oct. 2, the crush of people conveyed by escalator to the Statehouse Convention Center's upper hall planted most folks, leaving them to maneuver chests and hips to catch a breath of air. Or prevent a drink from spilling.

The annual fall fundraiser for the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences is always like that. The hall outside the ballroom swells up like a confetti bomb balloon, the quartet of double doors open, and whoosh! That moment just before the doors open is always the most stimulating and rewarding of the night.

This year's Gala for Life welcomed fewer guests -- about 850 -- although it hardly felt like it. As it did last year, it raised more than $1 million. It is now the only such fundraiser in town to net those dollars.

Before the doors released the swelling, the head of the institute, Dr. Peter Emanuel, and the event's co-chairman Patricia Johnson, along with Jonnie and Dr. Kent Westbrook, Dr. James Suen, and Gov. Asa and Susan Hutchinson, released a couple dozen monarch butterflies, a moment meant to remember those patients who did not survive.

Back inside, emcee Craig O'Neill, Emanuel, and event chairmen Dr. Carl and Patricia Johnson, welcomed guests to the ballroom. The first course was a trio of seared sea scallops with pea puree.

Emanuel and a short video informed guests that much of the night's haul was earmarked for the lung cancer clinic on campus. A table of survivors and doctors that included Jeannie Adams and Dr. Matthew Steliga were recognized with an ovation.

Lung cancer claims the lives of more Arkansans each year -- about 2,400 -- than breast cancer, colon cancer and prostate cancer combined.

By the time the salad course was served, a trio of female fiddlers -- the String Angels -- had taken the stage, and before the main course (a Chilean sea bass and a large lamb chop with a sweet potato souffle) the Groove Merchants from Utah took the stage, and everyone forsook the vittles and hit the dance floor.

Sometimes these events just have a life of their own.

-- Photos and story by Bobby Ampezzan

High Profile on 10/11/2015

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