Every year, the Southwest Ohio chapter of JDRF holds a giant gala that raises funds to find a cure for type 1 diabetes. However, like most of life during the spring of 2020, the organizers were forced to cancel.
“We shut down our office in early March and it was only about a week later when Governor DeWine started issuing directives about mass gatherings,” recalls Melissa Newman, JDRF’s executive director. “It was then that the reality of having to create a virtual gala became a real possibility.”
Newman and her team, including Gala Director Becky Gaible, scrambled to put together plans for many potential scenarios. However, as the severity of COVID-19 worsened by the day, they saw that going virtual was becoming their best and only option.
“After we came to this conclusion, we had to develop plans that needed approval by our national headquarters and we had so many supporters, donors and volunteers that we needed to contact,” says Newman. “And in the midst of this, we had to basically reinvent the gala wheel and figure out what a virtual format would look like and how the heck we were going to pull it off.”
On May 9, the JDRF did pull it off, hosting their first-ever Southwest Ohio Virtual Gala with a throwback ‘80s theme. The event was free to stream, and guests were encouraged to bid on auction items and donate as they normally would.
“We estimate that we had about 1,000 viewers throughout the night,” says Gaible. “And my biggest takeaway is just how amazing the support of the type 1 diabetes community truly is.”
“When I developed a revised forecast in March, we thought we would be lucky to raise $600,000 this year,” says Newman. “To achieve $750,000 not only exceeded our greatest expectations, but it reminded us of the strength, power and support of this special community.”
The event featured an impressive lineup of performances from American Idol’s Drake McCain, the Bengals’ DJ ETrayn and Cincinnati’s own Naked Karate Girls who stayed on the gala’s theme and played music like it was 1988.
Instead of being served cocktails and delicious food as they normally would at the gala, participants received a list of needed ingredients ahead of time and then followed along with demonstrations given by chefs and professional foodies.
However, the event’s highlight for Newman wasn’t the entertainment.
“The best part of the night was when Jack Hughes donated an additional $20,000 as a Fund-a-Cure match,” Newman says, smiling. “He had already donated so generously, and to see him step up in our time of need was incredibly moving — and then seeing a wave of donations from our supporters to achieve that match, effectively doubling it, still brings me chills.
“Jack is one of our favorite supporters. He is 93 years old and is living with type 1 diabetes,” she adds.
Newman and Gaible also appreciates the team that worked behind the scenes to get the event off the ground, especially the entire JDRF staff team as well as video production company, KPG
Creative, who helped run the event free of charge. “I will be eternally grateful to Bob Kelly, who is the owner of KPG Creative and is on our board,” says Newman. “They are a small business and have had several of their shows and events canceled because of the coronavirus. That makes this even more amazing that they were willing to donate their services to execute this event.”
Even though the virtual gala was a success, JDRF hopes things will go back to a traditional gala in 2021.
“I will say that this was a fun challenge, but it just wasn’t the same as an in-person experience,” says Newman. “I look forward to being able to share hugs and handshakes with our donors next year and dance with them during the after-party to celebrate our fundraising success.”
For more information about JDRF, visit www.swajdrf.org