Wizard of Oz Theme Highlights JDRF’s Fight Against Diabetes

Portland, May 3rd, 2014.  JDRF Oregon/SW Washington Chapter’s 19th Annual Hope Gala was held at the Sentinel Hotel. Over 400 guests attended the silent, wine and live auctions raising over $430,000. This year’s theme “There’s No Place Like Type None,” played on the Wizard of Oz and JDRF’s vision of working to turn type one (diabetes) into type none. Christine Snow and Toby Hayes of Hayes + Associates were honored. The event celebrated the outstanding type one diabetes research funded by JDRF in Oregon since 2001, totaling over $4.8 million dollars.

Larry and Suzanne Mackin were honored with the Hope Award for their many years of commitment to the Oregon/SW Washington Chapter and for ten years of service as Gala Co-Chairs. Pictured with Suzanne & Larry Mackin is their youngest daughter, Ali Mackin Crandall, who helped to present the Hope Award along with Jana Quinlan, Chapter Board President. Ali has been living with type one diabetes for over fifteen years and she is the reason that the Mackins have been such dedicated and generous supporters of JDRF.

From JDRF:

JDRF is the leading global organization funding type 1 diabetes (T1D) research. JDRF’s goal is to progressively remove the impact of T1D from people’s lives until we achieve a world without T1D. JDRF collaborates with a wide spectrum of partners and is the only organization with the scientific resources, regulatory influence, and a working plan to better treat, prevent, and eventually cure T1D.

As the largest charitable supporter of T1D research, JDRF is currently sponsoring $568 million in scientific research in 17 countries. In 2012 alone, JDRF provided more than $110 million to T1D research.