Young Christopher Grimes, a 5-year-old from Stowe, will be
honored at the Party at the Barn on Saturday, Nov. 13, at the
Shelburne Farms Coach Barn.
The event is a fundraiser for the Neuroblastoma Alliance, a
local nonprofit group that supports childhood cancer research being
spearheaded at the Vermont Cancer Center.
Christopher Grimes is battling neuroblastoma. Members of the
Grimes family are expected to speak at the Shelburne Farms
event.
The alliance is helping to finance innovative research and
trials being conducted by Dr. Giselle Sholler, a Charlotte
resident, at the University of Vermont. Her work recently earned a
$100,000 grant from Hyundai’s “Hope on Wheels” program.
Children who relapse after initial treatment for neuroblastoma
are generally considered untreatable. Sholler and her collaborators
are changing that conclusion, giving hope and more high-quality
time to the children and their families.
Many children in the national trials led by the Vermont Cancer
Center are now disease-free. The program tries to move new
treatments from the lab to the children as quickly and safely as
possible.
The evening includes music, live and silent auctions, and
appetizers and desserts prepared by local chefs. Tickets are
available at www.nballiance.org; suggested donation is $50.
Featured auction items include:
• A chance to throw out the first pitch at a Boston Red Sox
game, plus two tickets to the game and a night at the Boston
Marriott.
• A week’s stay in Paris.
• Dinner for eight at Café Shelburne.
• A weekend ski package to the Stowehof, the Stowe inn owned
by the Grimes family.
• A weekend spa package at Stoweflake Mountain Resort and Spa
in Stowe.
• Two JetBlue Airways tickets to a destination of your
choice.
• A dinner party prepared by chef Sevie Cartularo.
Last year’s party, the first, raised more than $15,000, and
other efforts brought in more than $300,000 during the year,
helping to fund four new clinical trials opened by the University
of Vermont neuroblastoma team and its consortium of hospitals
around the country.
Christoper Grimes was diagnosed with stage-four neuroblastoma
in September 2009, when he was 4 years old. Children with
neuroblastoma are given a 30 percent chance of survival.
In the past year, Christopher has gone through eight rounds of
chemotherapy, surgery to remove the primary tumor, an unplanned
surgery for a bowel obstruction, two stem-cell transplants that
involved month-long hospital stays, and 20 rounds of
radiation.
He is now going through antibody treatment, a painful therapy
that attacks the nerve cells and kills off remaining neuroblastoma
cells. That’s likely to continue into December.
The Neuroblastoma Alliance is run entirely by volunteers,
ensuring that nearly all the money it raises goes directly to
Sholler’s research program and the consortium’s clinical
trials.
Information: vermontcancer.org.
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