INDIANAPOLIS — This year marks the 25th anniversary for the ever-popular Gift of Life dinner and auction, hosted by the Rotary Club of Greenfield on Feb. 24.
Early bird pricing for individual $60 tickets ends at midnight tonight (Jan. 31) with the prices going up to $75 on Thursday. The event typically sells out.
Each year, the local Rotary raises tens of thousands of dollars for Gift of Life, which provides life-saving surgeries to children born with congenital heart defects.
“Once you hear the stories about the lives of the children that this impacts, it’s hard not to be proud of what the club has done with this,” said club president Derek Rogers, who hopes this year’s silver anniversary dinner and auction will raise more money than ever before.
Each year, the formal event is held at the Community Life Center at 10612 E Washington St. in Indianapolis, just west of Cumberland.
“Last year, there were only eight seats per table, but this year we’re doing 10 per table, so I’m thinking we’re going to have more people than we’ve had in the past,” said Rogers.
This year’s dinner is sponsored by Stillinger Family Funeral Home and Joyner Homes.
Local auctioneer Wayne Addison has emceed the event each year for the past 25 years.
He’s one of a handful of longtime Rotarians who have been with the club since the first Gift of Life was held in 1999.
That group includes Tony Campbell, who Rogers refers to as “the godfather of this event.”
It was Campbell who brought the international Gift of Life event to Greenfield, sharing how other clubs were making a difference for children around the world.
Retired Superior Court judge Terry Snow has also been around since before the local event’s inception.
Last week Snow was a featured speaker at the local Rotary club’s weekly luncheon, sharing how the Gift of Life program has touched him personally.
According to Rogers, Snow was in Afghanistan shortly after 9/11 when he encountered a young boy with a heart defect. Thanks to Rotary’s Gift of Life, the boy was flown to Riley Children’s Hospital, where he received life-saving heart surgery.
Gift of Life fundraisers are held worldwide each year by numerous chapters of Rotary International.
According to GiftofLifeInternational.org, over 1.3 million children are born each year with a congenital heart defect, and 93% are born in a country that cannot provide treatment.
“Gift of Life International provides life-saving surgery to a child every 99 minutes by empowering doctors and nurses with the tools, training, funding and support they need to treat children,” according to the website.
Over the years, many recipients have traveled to Indianapolis for surgery at Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis, which has enabled local Rotarians to witness the power of the Gift of Life first hand.
Addison has been among the Rotarians to witness the immediate impact the treatment can make for a child.
“A lot of times they’d come in and we’d see these kids before their surgery where they could barely sit up and do anything. They have their surgery and just in a short amount of time afterwards they would be running all around the place. It’s amazing,” he said. “I don’t know of anything you can give better than the gift of life.”
Addison has a great time working the crowd at the local Gift of Life auction each year, in a playful quest to raise as much money as possible.
Vacation packages, concert experiences, jewelry and sports memorabilia are among the items auctioned off each year.
To purchase tickets to this year’s Gift of Life dinner and auction, visit https://wedoauctions.com/tickets/rotarygiftoflife/tix.
For more information on the Gift of Life program, visit GiftofLifeInternational.org.
