A big check

A big check, a beautiful child

The place card indicated “table 1.” Clearly, I thought, there’s been some kind of mistake. A digit is missing. I consulted the host. Nope. Take your seat. So there I was, at a gala event sitting front and center with the keynote speaker and several past honorees of the Spirit of Life Award. This is the table from which thousands of dollars of spontaneous donations flow to City of Hope, and millions have been raised over the years. Star struck, but not panic-stricken, I resolved to pay attention and take good notes. So that’s what I did, and here’s what I wrote:

Brad Paulsen, left, with a big check and three of his many teammates.

Las Vegas — Some of the biggest names and biggest brands in home improvement packed a ballroom at Caesar’s Palace in January for the Spirit of Life awards ceremony to support City of Hope. The night culminated in the presentation of a large novelty check made out to the disease research facility to the tune of $1.3 million. Last minute generosity from the industry pushed the night’s total over $1.4 million.

The big names included The Home Depot, Lowe’s, Quikrete, and the night’s Spirit of Life honoree Brad Paulsen, president of HD Supply Facilities & Maintenance.

But the undeniable star of the gala event was a little girl who wasn’t even Ken Clark Editor in Chief

in attendance. Anna Olivia Healey died of cancer years earlier. But her story and her family inspired the event’s keynote speaker to dedicate her career to a cure for cancer. The speaker, the City of Hope research scientist Linda Malkas, told the story of meeting Anna’s family when the scientist was the Vera Bradley Chair of Oncology at Indiana University. The meeting changed the course of her research, and led her to City of Hope, where she is a professor and associate chair of molecular and cellular biology.

Pointing to the exciting promise of precision medicine, she told the hardware and homebuilding audience: “We stand at the threshold of miracles. Because of you.”

One such miracle, potentially, is the promising cancer drug AOH1996, named after Anna and the year she was born.

The night’s speakers included Paulsen and his former colleague at The Home Depot, Giles Bowman, last year’s Spirit of Life honoree. They and others leaned on phrases such as “visionary cancer breakthroughs,” “medical miracles,” and, or course, “hope.” In his address, the 2020 honoree Paulsen shared how he felt lucky to work for a string of companies — including The Home Depot and HD Supply — that emphasized giving back to their communities. And he thanked the audience for its “continued support of City of Hope and its life-saving efforts.” In that effort, “we are all team members,” he added. HBSD

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