RAPAPORT... Uplifting was the operative word when more than 2,300 members of the jewelry and watch industry gathered at the 10th Annual Facets of Hope gala at The Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas to raise funds for the industry’s Jewelers for Children (JFC) charity. The campaign was kicked off by JFC Chairman Howard Sherwood, of Daniel’s Jewelers, in Southern California, who observed, “It was a challenging year, but I am overwhelmed by the generosity of the industry.”
The event raised $3 million for the charity. A raffle for a customized Tweety Fine Jewelry Volkswagen Bug automobile, donated by international fine jewelry house D’Annunzio, which has a line of Tweety Bird jewelry, raised $60,000 for JFC.
JFC donations support special programs for children whose lives have been devastated by catastrophic illness or life-threatening abuse and neglect. As the industry’s charity, JFC is supported by those who create and sell fine jewelry and watches, including manufacturers, retail jewelers, trade associations, watch companies and others who provide professional services to the jewelry industry. Partner charities are the Make-A-Wish Foundation International, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and National CASA Association.
A HISTORY OF GIVING
Honorees for the evening were Allen Brill, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Rolex Watch USA, and Peter Engel, president of Fred Meyer Jewelers, headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Both of the honorees, who will lead JFC fund-raising efforts for the next year, have a long history of supporting worthy causes. Under Brill’s guidance, Rolex has supported Fisher House – Helping Military Families, the USO, the American Red Cross, the Helen Keller National Center and a number of other causes. Engel, who began his career as a sales associate at Fred Meyer, serves on numerous boards, including the Oregon Chapter of CASA for Children and the board of directors of JFC. He urged guests to support JFC, saying, “Your contribution will continue to make a profound difference to children in need.”
Four young women who have benefited from the charity were introduced to the audience at the event. They were: Vava Cole, whose wish was granted to go to Paris to visit the restaurants featured in the movie “Ratatouille”; Jacey Lynn, who visited Walt Disney World while receiving cancer treatment in 2002; 13-year-old Samantha Wallace, who was declared cancer-free in 2008 after treatment at St. Jude’s; and Kiaya Combs, who entered the foster care system at six years of age and, thanks to CASA, was subsequently adopted by a loving family.
WHAT THEY DOThe Make-A-Wish Foundation, founded in 1980, is dedicated to granting the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions. Today, the foundation is the largest wish-granting charity in the world, with 69 chapters in the U.S. and its territories. It has granted more than 141,000 wishes in the U.S. since its inception. In April 2008, Cole became JFC’s 1,000th “wish child” since the charity was founded in 1999.
Through Make-A-Wish Foundation International, JFC has expanded its efforts to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of India, with the goal of reaching 5,000 Indian children with life-threatening illnesses during 2008. Helped by JFC’s donations, India has increased the number of wishes it grants through the program by more than 200 percent since 2003.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is dedicated to finding cures and saving children with life-threatening diseases. JFC’s commitment to St. Jude’s has helped the hospital provide state-of-the-art treatments for children with cancer and other catastrophic illnesses and to research life-saving breakthroughs. JFC helps ensure that no child will ever be turned away from St. Jude’s because of a family’s inability to pay. In its decade of fund-raising, JFC has raised money for St. Jude’s Bone Marrow Transplant Clinic and its Stem Cell Transplantation Laboratory and has funded a chair in the Genetics and Gene Therapy department. It is currently working to fulfill a $5 million pledge to fund immune system regeneration research.
The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation seeks to prevent pediatric HIV infection and to eradicate pediatric AIDS through research, advocacy, prevention and treatment programs. The program allows leaders in the field of pediatric AIDS/HIV research to bring hope to children and families worldwide. JFC’s support of the Glaser Pediatric Research Network Fellow program has helped accelerate the discovery of new treatments for other serious and life-threatening pediatric illnesses.
National CASA Association, which serves 200,000 children annually, is dedicated to making the world a safer and more nurturing place for the nation’s abused and neglected children. Trained volunteers, who are matched one-to-one with children, work to place those children into stable, caring homes.
Other organizations that have been brought under JFC’s charity umbrella are the Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation, the Jason Program, Autism Speaks, the Santa-America Fund, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps. For additional information, consult the JFC’s website, www.jewelersforchildren.org or call 212.687.2949.
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - July 2008. To subscribe click here.