Where Amazing Happens....

Ok so I stole it from the NBA but somehow fitting as I am at an NBA event for the next 10 days. Now I won't say that Vegas is amazing, I won't say that my hotel is amazing...although it's close to amazing when it comes to non-gaming hotels in Vegas...I won't say that work today was rather amazing but what I will say is amazing is the evening I had tonight.

I had to do one of the things I most hate to do tonight and will honestly admit that I went into the evening with a bad attitude, I however left with a change of heart and was privileged to to be part of such an amazing evening.

Like every other year at Summer League the operating group has a tip-off dinner at a local casino and for the past three years it has been a charity dinner for Hoops for St. Jude. Most of the coaches and front office staff from the 23 teams participating in Summer League were in attendance. There were people from Las Vegas, from Chicago, from Memphis and Phoenix that came in for the event. I for one was under-dressed for the event not knowing I was going to the event I didn't pack accordingly.

The night was emceed by David Aldridge (TNT & NBA TV) and George Karl (head coach of the Denver Nuggets) was the guest of honor. George shared his story about fighting throat cancer over the past four months and the story of his son fighting cancer during his senior year at college. They honored two kids, a now 17 year old who at 13 was told he had one month to live and a cute 13 year old who at the age of 8 had brain cancer.

There was a silent auction, a live auction and a live to give auction. The money that was raised during this event was incredible but it really wasn't about all the big wigs donating money it was about them opening their wallets for St. Jude's Children's hospital. I learned that St. Jude's has a daily operating budget of 1.5 million dollars, an insane amount of money. I learned that St. Jude's never charges their patients one penny for their services. I learned that back in 1962 when St. Jude's was opened a child with leukemia had a four percent chance of surviving the horrible disease and today 94 percent of children diagnosed with childhood leukemia survive. One of the most amazing bits of information I took from the evening was that St. Jude's is an open book. They share everything with other children's hospitals and other cancer hospitals around the nation. Their research is free to help everyone regardless if they are in Memphis or not.

There were several video tributes to children who had lived, one on George Karl and one about hope and living and after watching these videos there wasn't a dry eye in the house. I won't say that I didn't enjoy dinner (after all it was filet mignon and not McDonalds) and it was free for me, ok dinner was amazing.

I had a chance to donate but didn't have my wallet with me but I will in the future, when I receive the return address labels in the mail that I use with the cute hand drawn pictures, I will when I receive that envelope to donate to my local children's hospital, after all, it's going to the children (and the families) who have been given much more pain than any child deserves.

Tonight I learned that Amazing Happens at St. Jude's Children's Hospital.