The Valerie Fund Blog

The Valerie Fund's Thanksgiving Ball Gala has been the highlight of the organization's fall/winter fundraising season and after 26 years, a change in venue set the tone for an all-out effort to dazzle guests. Close to 350 guests came to the beautiful facility, The Grove in Cedar Grove, NJ and soon realized they were a part of the most memorable evening to date! Towering autumn centerpieces filled the tables in the massive ballroom. But the room couldn't contain the enthusiasm and generosity of the guests in response to the honoree speeches and interactions with our patient ambassadors.

Before the lineup of speakers took to the podium Valerie Fund patient, Olivia introduced the evening's 15 ambassadors. Ranging in age from six to 19, each current or former Valerie Fund patient spoke a little bit about themselves and mingled with guests in the ballroom.

Pat Tully, the Gala's auctioneer, rallied the crowd during the evening's live auction which featured tickets to see Bruce Springsteen on Broadway plus a signed guitar, and dinner for ten in the private dining room of the esteemed L'Artusi restaurant in New York City. Close to $600,000 was raised --- the second largest fundraising total in the Ball's history! 

The Valerie Fund is proud to announce that Sue and Ed Goldstein will be inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame. The determined efforts of the Goldsteins over the last four decades have resulted in access to compassionate care for thousands of children in New Jersey battling cancer and blood disorders. The induction ceremony will be held on Sunday, May 7^th in Asbury Park.

Sue and Ed Goldstein created The Valerie Fund in 1976 after losing their younger daughter Valerie to cancer. In Valerie’s memory, they were driven to make things better for other children and families fighting that same battle. In 1989 Sue and Ed’s older daughter Stacy was diagnosed with breast cancer and in 2001, at the age of 37, Stacy, too, lost her battle with cancer.

Sue was always in the forefront of getting the word out about The Valerie Fund and parenting a sick child. She co-wrote and co-produced the early Valerie Fund newsletters, and has just recently started writing for her personal blog.

What follows is an enlightening excerpt from Sue’s as-yet-unpublished memoirs titled “Unexpected Lives”. She describes the book as “...told from a mother’s perspective... the story of how one family confronts cancer in its only two children: Valerie, diagnosed when she was three, and years later, Stacy, diagnosed at twenty five." Sue uncovers her family’s will to live fully and enthusiastically. Hovering over all, however, is a dark cloud of uncertainty as ordinary people are faced with extraordinary illness.