Making spirits bright: 'Winter Wishes' event funds lifesaving care for kids

The Founders' Board of Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago hosted its Winter Wishes Holiday Cocktail Celebration, presented by Sterling Bay, on Nov. 21. Over 350 guests gathered at a private club in Chicago’s Gold Coast for a festive evening of cocktails and hors d'oeuvres to help raise $527,000 for Lurie Children’s Heart Center and their work to provide World Class Care at the Heart of the Community, which was the event’s theme. 

Donors who attended the event made gifts to Lurie Children’s through the evening’s Wish List, which included funding items and services to help ensure proper training and access to lifesaving devices to treat sudden cardiac arrest along with preventive education programs to promote better heart health. 

The event welcomed speakers Dr. Stuart Burger (Division Head of Pediatric Cardiology & Co-Director of the Heart Center at Lurie Children’s Hospital), Pastor Contrell Jenkins (CEO of Stone Community Development Corporation and Austin HOPE Center Co-Developer), and Lurie patient Jadale Mitchell. Each spoke to the importance of reducing barriers to specialty health care access and providing cardiology services in the highest risk communities in the Chicago area.

Winter Wishes was co-chaired by Ginger Hecht and Libby Holdren, who was joined by new Founders’ Board President Margie Stineman and many of the Founders’ Board members and friends. In addition to presenting sponsor Sterling Bay, other sponsors included: Christopher Family Foundation, May River Capital and Packaging Corporation of America along with many other sponsors and individuals. 

The over half a million dollars raised at this year’s Winter Wishes will go towards the Founders’ Board’s two-year $4 million commitment to Lurie Children’s Heart Center.

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