2020 PHASE ONE Annual Gala Update

To Our Friends of PHASE ONE:

We hope everyone is staying safe during these challenging and unprecedented times. As you may recall, this year’s PHASE ONE Gala was scheduled for March 19th at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica. Unfortunately, we had to postpone the event at that time due to COVID-19 and it is with heavy hearts that we now recognize that we will be unable to host an in-person Gala this year. 

In hopes of staying true to the spirit of our Gala, we invite you to enjoy the premiere of the 2020 Gala video, which will be featured on our website as of July 14! We are also proud to announce that with your generous donations, we have funded a grant to help further the leukemia research being done at City of Hope, which is shown in part in the Gala video. This research is being undertaken by Dr. Elizabeth Budde, who works closely with Dr. Stephen Forman at City of Hope.

Also, in keeping with the spirit of our Gala, and our love for food, we used funds originally intended for the event’s catering to supply meals from our restaurants partners to A Place Called Home (APCH), a nonprofit youth community center that supports families in South Central Los Angeles. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, APCH launched their Family Resource Depot to respond to urgent and ongoing needs of families impacted most by pandemic-related job loss and poverty. PHASE ONE’s donation will help provide fresh meals and groceries to a few hundred families who are served weekly through this program.  

In response to COVID-19, we are also pleased to report that PHASE ONE recently made an emergency community grant to the Simms/Mann-UCLA Center for Integrative Oncology. This grant supports the increased need for psychosocial care for cancer patients and their families, who must manage the additional challenges of getting medical treatments and screenings in the midst of the pandemic.

Despite the challenges of COVID-19, the reality is that cancer does not pause for anything so please consider a donation to PHASE ONE if you have not already done so this year. With your help, we can continue to make a difference in the lives of all those who bravely face cancer every single day – the cancer patients, the caretakers, the doctors, and the researchers. With you on our side, anything is possible!

We will miss seeing everyone in person this year but remain so grateful and appreciative for your support of cancer research this year and over the last 21 years. None of what we’ve accomplished since the creation of PHASE ONE would be possible without your generosity.

Thank you for your dedication to our organization, it truly means the world to us.

With gratitude, 

Brad Meadow, Chairman of the Board of Directors

Linda Toth, Board Member and Gala Co-Chair

Caroline Styne, Gala Co-Chair