Ladies Who Brunch Raises a Record $2.8 Million for Kids with Cancer

McKenzie Saleck, Alex Kruger and Annie Hurley (photo by Alex Montoya)

By Jeff Gremillion

Ladies Who Brunch filled The Revaire and left with a record: $2.8 million for kids with cancer.

Sky High for Kids’ 11th annual gathering drew more than 700 guests on Sept. 27, during Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month. Co-chairs Alex Joven Kinsey and Peyton Wallace ran a sold-out afternoon of brunch, cocktails, a Ralph Lauren-inspired setting and a runway show from Alchemia and Modern Marla. Houston custom suit designer Sterling Dio was guest of honor. Living Designs Furniture, Sapphire Smiles and Texas Mattress Makers presented.

The room was already shopping the silent auction by 11am. Kinsey and Wallace welcomed the crowd. Jessica Morrison, president of the board, led the prayer. Emcee Logan Lester Tafelski took the program from there.

Twenty-one Cancer Warriors sat at the center of it, including 19-year-old Dylan Probe, this year’s featured warrior. Diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma in her right heel at 9, she went through 14 rounds of chemotherapy, transfusions, repeated hospital stays and the amputation of her right leg, finishing treatment in 2017. Nine years cancer-free, she is a sophomore at Texas A&M University, studying kinesiology with plans for nursing, and has grown up inside Sky High as an advocate for other kids.

The runway paired 16 Cancer Warriors with hosts and family, with Cancer Warrior Payton A. as emcee. Quinn L., whose brother RJ died in April, walked. Later, during the live auction, Quinn and her family were surprised with Waffles, a mini goldendoodle, a gift arranged by the Vestal and Mickler families.

Founder and CEO Brittany Hebert Franklin ran the live auction. Two competing $100,000 bids to fund a fertility preservation cycle for Probe through Reproductive Medicine Associates became two gifts, from Allie LaForce and Michelle Ciaravino, covering Dylan and a future young woman warrior. The Christmas Carnival drew two $75,000 pledges, $150,000 in all. A Sapphire Smiles and Ciaravino Total Beauty package went for $35,000. A painting by 9-year-old Marlee M., a gold ribbon on pink, sold for $100,000.

Proceeds support Sky High’s work with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Texas Children’s Hospital. Sky High has given more than $43 million and is closing in on two $20 million commitments to those hospitals. At Texas Children’s, that money helped open the nation’s first pediatric immunotherapy center and a dedicated Sky High patient floor. The group also sends Cancer Warrior Packs, family outings and Sunday Suppers to families in treatment.

Among those attending: Drs. Antoun and Mary Mina Antoun, Frances Moody Buzbee, Blaine and Katie Fertitta, Allie LaForce, Michele Leal, Iris and Danny Shaftel, Pierce Bush and Estella Cockrell.

Ladies Who Brunch Raises a Record $2.8 Million for Kids with Cancer

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