St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has been serving childhood cancer patients and their families in Peoria since the Midwest Affiliate opened in 1972. Each year, ALSAC, the organization’s fundraising arm, and its volunteers spend many hours raising the funds needed to carry out the hospital’s mission of advancing cures and means of prevention for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment.

On April 1, 2011, the St. Jude Gala will work toward that goal while celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Memphis to Peoria Run. The event will take place at the Par-A-Dice Hotel Casino, with cocktails at 6 and dinner at 7pm. A silent auction will run from 6 to 9:30pm, with dancing and live music from The Orchestra 33, a high-energy dance band from Chicago, from 8 to 11pm. Tickets are $150 per person. For more information, call the St. Jude office at (309) 679-4590.

Save the Date!
Friday, April 1, 2011 @ Par-A-Dice Hotel Casino
6pm cocktails, 7pm dinner, silent auction from 6 to 9:30pm, live music from 8 to 11pm.

QUICK FACTS

• St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital opened on February 4, 1962 and was founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas.
• St. Jude was the first institution established for the sole purpose of conducting basic and clinical research and treatment into catastrophic childhood diseases, mainly cancer.
• Its medical and scientific staff published more than 640 articles in academic journals in 2009, more than any other pediatric cancer research center in the country. St. Jude’s researchers are published and cited more often than any other private pediatric oncology institution in America.
• Research findings at St. Jude are shared freely with doctors and scientists all over the world.
• No child is ever denied treatment because of the family’s inability to pay.