Promise Gala—making progress towards a cure

To the future!

Published On: May 27, 2010

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We love it when funds raised at a party are actually making a difference in finding a cure. That’s most certainly a reason to celebrate.

Thus the number of happy faces at this year’s Promise Gala, the annual fundraiser for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Well, that was the main reason along with another big draw to the event—Annette Eskind and Larry Wolfe. Both were honored at the Gala, and 500 of their friends and family showed up at the Vanderbilt Loews Hotel to support them.

Co-chairs Lisa Campbell and Joyce Vise did an excellent job reeling in guests and auction items for the event, and both looked lovely—Lisa in a pretty orange and pink number and Joyce sporting a new green Oscar de la Renta dress. We admire the way Loews and the JDRF work together to ensure an informative menu complete with carbohydrate content. The kitchen outdid itself, serving a white bean salad with crabmeat and avocado and seared filet with roasted shallot jus. Finish that off with a chocolate cobbler, mini peach fried pie and dulce de leche ice cream. Yummy.

Co-chair Lisa Campbell’s 21-year-old daughter Eileen has Type 1 Diabetes, and the disease, she explained in her address, has made her grow up quickly. Eileen helped save the life of a Vandy dormmate who was displaying the classic signs of a diabetic emergency. She administered an insulin shot and wrote the dosage on the girl’s arm for the ER. Recounting the tale Eileen was brought to tears, just as the audience wept alongside her. This beautiful young lady is an example of someone who took something bad and used it to make her better.

John Seigenthaler is once again becoming Nashville’s go-to emcee, and he flew in from Connecticut with wife Kerry Brock (looking glam in a spring suede jacket) to help the cause. After a live auction where folks took home some divine treats, the evening wound to a close. But rest assured, no one forgot young Eileen’s remarks and the reason for the celebration. EN

—photographs by
susan adcock