Amazing! VNSNY Gala Raises a Record $1.32 Million for Our Charitable Care Programs

This year’s VNSNY Gala, celebrating VNSNY’s 125th anniversary with the theme, “Enriching Lives: 125 Years and Counting!”, ended up making history in its own right. The event, held on November 8th in the recently renovated Ziegfeld Ballroom, raised a record-breaking $1,320,000 in donations from the nearly 600 people in attendance, shattering the previous mark set four years ago.

“All of the Gala’s proceeds will go to support our vital charitable care and community benefit programs,” says Catherine Callaway, Vice President of Marketing and Development. These include a wide range of important safety-net programs such as VNSNY’s Nurse-Family Partnership, Hospice services, and the VNSNY Research Center.

For example, money raised from the event will go to create brighter futures for young mothers like Ashley, who, as she says, “was in a bad place” and needed help. Here is Ashley’s story:

Proceeds from the Gala will also help enable VNSNY to continue providing care to under- and uninsured New Yorkers, including elderly patients like 85-year-old Anna, who was hospitalized with pneumonia and came home weak from her illness and frightened because she had no health insurance. Here is Anna’s story:

“It was a great night for the vulnerable populations we serve,” notes John Billeci, Director of Special Events and Individual Giving, who, along with Lauren Weir, Manager of Special Events and Individual Giving, oversees the Gala.

It was also an evening of firsts. “Besides being the first VNSNY event ever to raise more than $1.3 million,” says John, “we were in a brand-new venue. We also had a new phone app that let attendees donate money from their seats by texting as they watched their names go up on a screen onstage.” In yet another first, adds John, the event shed its traditional black-tie dress code in favor of “festive attire.”

Left to right: VNSNY Board Chair John Rafferty; VNSNY President and CEO Marki Flannery; Lillian Wald Award Honorees, April Anthony and Tony Millbank; and Master of Ceremonies, Susan Fales-Hill.

“In this historic year, I think everyone shared the same sense of honoring VNSNY’s mission,” says Marki Flannery, VNSNY’s President and VNSNY.  “This year’s Gala helps ensure that VNSNY will continue to be there for New Yorkers in need for many years to come.”