Last night, hundreds of fundsters and their allies gathered in New York City for a fundraising party for an industry charity.

Frank Heavey Expect Miracles Foundation Executive Director

More than 600 people partied last night at the Expect Miracles Foundation's sixth annual Expect Miracles in Manhattan event, held this time at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in midtown Manhattan. Speaking onstage at the event, the foundation's executive director, Frank Heavey, predicted that the event would raise "well over $300,000" for the fight against cancer, following a record 2019 for the foundation.

More than 100 companies supported the event in one way or another, according to outgoing foundation board member Ben Huneke, managing director at Morgan Stanley. The event featured a raffle wheel, a "wine pull" (pay $25 and get a random, possibly very expensive, bottle of wine), a silent auction, and a live auction.

At the event, Heavey awarded the Expect Miracles Award to Huneke, who has served on the board for five years. And Heavey awarded the Foundation Award to J.P. Morgan, noting that Chase (now part of JPM) was the foundation's first corporate sponsor more than 20 years ago.

Attendees also honored two members of the Expect Miracles family, Kelly Newsome and Bob Glenn, who recently died of cancer.

Attendees also heard from a cancer survivor (who was lent a helping hand by the Samfund, now part of Expect Miracles), from the son of a cancer survivor (whose mom beat cancer after taking a experimental new treatment that came out of research supported by the foundation), and from Daniel Heller from the Center for Experimental Therapeutics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (one of the organizations the foundation supports). Heller highlighted current research being done by two postdocs: one on using particles to target cancer medication at cancer cells in the brain; and the other developing a smart-watch-like device for early cancer detection.

As in years past, the live auction was run by a professional auctioneer, Duncan, who has worked the event before. The live auction featured six items, including three with key platform executives.

Dinner for five guests, with Sandy Bolton and John Pavese of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, at Bolton's home in Belmar, New Jersey, catered by a personal chef service. Two of these sold for $9,250 each.

Dinner for six guests, with Huneke and Margaret Flynn-Martin of Morgan Stanley, at The Palm Too in New York City. This sold for $9,000.

Two tickets to a taping of the TV show Saturday Night Live. This sold for $7,300.

A trip to Aruba. This sold for $3,000.

Golf and dinner for six guests, with Traci Simpson and Greg Toskos of UBS, at Fiddler's Elbow Country Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Two of these sold for $2,500 each.

A trip to Saint Lucia. This sold for $2,500.

Next up for the foundation is their 11th annual West Coast Classic Charity Golf Tournament (in April in Newport Beach, California) and their 26th annual East Coast Classic Charity Golf Tournament (in June in Plymouth, Massachusetts). 

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