25th Night of Hope nets $215K for St. Jude

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“Her motivation is unmatched,” exclaimed Carmela Moran last Saturday evening inside Alpine Country Club’s softly-lighted, smartly decorated and music-filled grand dining room. “She’s just unbelievable; it’s incredible what she’s done.”

Few people, if any, would dispute that theory about Catherine Grieco, the tireless president of the Rhode Island Chapter of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which Saturday night shattered all previous fundraising records during the 25th Anniversary Night of Hope.

Ever since her niece Christine Rotondo succumbed to cancer a quarter-century ago, Grieco has been on what she called a “fantastic journey” – an ambitious fundraising campaign – that Saturday evening raised a record-setting $215,000 for the award-winning children’s research hospital.

“She’s a fundraiser extraordinaire,” said Moran, who is Grieco’s sister and secretary of the Rhode Island Chapter of St. Jude. “And we thought that last year’s event was unbeatable.”

The 2014 gala, which Grieco’s husband Michael hosted at his well-appointed Honda dealership on Hartford Avenue in Johnston, brought in $180,000.

However, people were absolutely amazed when Allison Bologna – an NBC10 news anchor who emceed Saturday evening’s event – announced that the Night of Hope raised $215,000 with money still coming in.

Moreover, Bologna told an attentive audience that the Grieco-led Rhode Island Chapter has raised over $2-million in the last 25 years for St. Jude.

How, though, did such a small chapter raise such an extraordinary amount of money?

“It takes a lot of time and commitment,” Grieco emphasized. “My committee was always dedicated to raising money for the children at the hospital. My dream team of family, friends and friends of friends put aside their own families for the past 25 years to help the children of St. Jude.”

This year’s campaign, though, reached the fundraising pinnacle.

For starters, Metro Motor Group raised $30,000 in the form of a car donation, and vendors that do business with the Grieco family dealerships in Rhode Island and Florida donated a combined total of $20,000.

There was also a well-done printed program for Saturday’s event, which included advertisements and tributes from what Grieco called “very, very generous supporters of our Rhode Island Chapter’s efforts.”

And Saturday night’s dinner-dance included 58 silent auction items like dinner for eight at Basta Italian Restaurant n Pawtuxet Village, a Rob Gronkowski New England Patriots autographed shirt and football, and even an officially signed game ball from Tom Brady that netted $1,000.

“We had box seats to a Patriots game that brought in $1,900,” Grieco said. “In all we had 18 live auction items, including several items from [retired New York Yankees star] Derek Jeter and golf at Carnegie Abbey [Country Club in Portsmouth].”

Perhaps Richard C. Shadyac Jr., president and CEO of ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, best described Grieco’s efforts – as well as the Rhode Island Chapter’s contributions over the last 25 years.

“It takes a tremendous amount of time and energy and devotion to organize events like this,” Shadyac wrote in an address that Bologna read Saturday night. “And we are grateful to Cathy Grieco and her dedicated committee members for bringing such great leadership and enthusiasm to make St. Jude Night of Hope such a great success.”

More importantly, as Shadyac wrote: “The support of this event and your community enables St. Jude to lead the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. We have made great strides by helping to push the overall survival rate in the U.S. for childhood cancers from less than 20 percent when our doors opening in 1962 to more than 80 percent today.”

Unfortunately, there’s a sad side to Saturday’s event, as Grieco has decided that after 25 years it’s time for a break and that means there might not be another Night for Hope.

“I’ll miss the people,” she said. “As I said, it has been a fantastic journey. However, no one’s willing to step forward and take this job over. It’s time consuming and requires lots of follow-up.”

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