Last night more than 500 fundsters and their allies converged in New York City to raise money to fight cancer.

Frank Heavey, Maggie Dombroski, and their Expect Miracles Foundation team hosted their fifth annual Expect Miracles in Manhattan gala, themed "Picture a Cure." This year the charity (tagline: "Financial Services Against Cancer", and fka Mutual Funds Against Cancer") will celebrate its 25th anniversary and cross the $10-million mark for donations to cancer-fighting research (after donating a record $1.3 million last year alone). Stay tuned for new upcoming Expect Miracles events, like a New York reception for "miracle makers" (people who pledge to contribute at least $1,000 annually to the charity).

"We have to do more than just show up," Heavey told fundsters. "We have to fund it."

This year the charity's Manhattan gala moved to a new venue, the Playstation Theater in midtown, near Times Square. After a VIP reception, the main event kicked off at 7pm and featured both silent and live auctions (complete with a professional auctioneer), a band, wandering donation volunteers, and a photo booth.

Margaret Flynn-Martin, executive director in the relationship management group at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, and John Pavese, managing director and head of relationship management at Merrill Lynch, co-chaired the event. The duo gave a few opening remarks and revealed the foundation's MMLC (Miracle Makers Leadership Council, for the aforementioned miracle makers) leadership board. Currently ICE Data Services is in the lead with 14 MMLC members, followed by BNY Mellon and State Street (12 each), John Hancock (8), SS&C and DST (7), Confluence (5), and Citi, Columbia Threadneedle, J.P. Morgan, and MFS (4 each).

Luci Strauss Garren, a vice president and key accounts relationship manager at Goldman Sachs, won the YPEM (Young Professionals Expect Miracles) award. BNY Mellon and Eagle Investment Systems won the foundation award, which was accepted by Emily Portney, BNY Mellon's head of asset servicing, Americas.

Dr. Daniel Heller, laboratory head in the molecular pharmacology program and the center for experimental therapeutics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, was a special guest at the gala. (The foundation is a big contributor to that center.)

The live auction featured eight items: Goslings rum party for 20 people (the party sold for $800); dinner for two and caricatures at NYC's The Palm Too (the package sold for $900); a Las Vegas-Atlantic City vacation (the trip sold for $1,000); a his and hers shopping spree and lunch at Bryant Park Grill (the package sold for $1,000); an Antigua vacation, (the trip sold for $1,800); an Aruba vacation, (the trip sold for $2,000); a four-course, chef-prepared meal with Pavese and Sandy Bolton (managing director and head managed investments in Merrill's investment solutions group), at Bolton's Belmar, New Jersey home, (the dinner sold for $4,200); a private, 20-person cocktail party with Flynn-Martin, David Rosen (managing director and head of traditional investment products at Morgan Stanley), and Ben Huneke (also a Morgan Stanley managing director) at Huneke's Manhattan home (the party sold for $5,000).

Upcoming Expect Miracles Events include a golf tournament in San Diego in March, a golf tournament in Plymouth in June, a golf tournament in Bedminster in September, and a party in Boston in November.

The foundation's sponsors this year include: AST; BNY Mellon and Eagle Investment Systems: Broadridge; Citi; Columbia Threadneedle; Confluence; DFIN (Donnelly Financial Solutions); DWS; Eaton Vance and NextShares; Hartford Funds; ICE Data Services; GIBC Digital; Goldman Sachs Asset Management; J.P. Morgan and J.P. Morgan Asset Management; Legg Mason; MFS; Northern Trust; Pimco; PGIM Investments; SS&C and DST; State Street; and Vestmark. Sponsors of last night's gala include: Advisors Asset Management (AAM); Capital Group's American Funds; Amundi Pioneeer; Archer; BlackRock; BNP Paribas; ComputerShare; Fidelity; Franklin Templeton; Jackson; MjE Advisors; Morgan Stanley; New York Life Investments; TIAA's Nuveen; Putnam; PWC; SEI; and Thornburg. 

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