LOWELL — In a sense, the Color of Hope has always been green.
Every year, there is a signature color at the Color of Hope gala, a major fundraiser that benefits the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Foundation.
In 2011, the color was chocolate, so the room was filled with guests wearing brown dresses, suits and ties, while the chocolate bar featured candy and other treats in the color. Previous gala colors were purple, blue and red.
This year’s gala, which takes place Friday night at the John Q. Hammons Convention Center in Rogers, is going green: plenty of green clothing and sugary treats - and even more green going to the foundation.
Last year, the gala, along with its golf tournament, Will Golf 4 Kids, raised a combined $920,000 for the foundation.
“It truly is amazing, when you look at how much money we’ve raised for the hospital,” says Mike Hook of Lowell, who is on the gala’s planning committee. “It’s an incredible event. There’s so much support,and the community really gets behind it.”
Hook, a sales director for SC Johnson, has lived in Northwest Arkansas for 17 years, and for nearly that long, he has been playing in Will Golf 4 Kids. This year’s edition, Thursday and Friday at Kingsdale Golf Complex in Bella Vista, will be the 19th annual playing of the tournament.
For much of its history, Will Golf 4 Kids concluded with a small celebratory dinner in Bella Vista. That changed in 2008, when Steve and Lori Collins of Rogers spearheaded thecreation of the Color of Hope gala. That first event netted $615,000 for the foundation, and it grew nearly 50 percent in its first four years.
The gala is a popular event, drawing sell-out crowds of 1,200 people each of the past two years.
“It’s an amazing event,” Hook says. “It’s tough every year [to match previous editions]. ... It’s really making a difference in the lives of children and their families.”
Will Golf 4 Kids is a fourperson scramble, with a shotgun start at 7 a.m. on Thursday and Friday. Lunch will be served both days.
The gala begins at 5:30 p.m. Friday. Dress is cocktail attire - in shades of green suggested, of course - and tickets are $200 apiece, or $2,000 for a table of 10.
There will be dinner, music from Memphis Soul Revue, and expansive live and silent auctions. Bidding for some of the largest auction items - trips to Ireland, Italy and St. Lucia, as well as events like the Super Bowl and theCountry Music Awards - is already available through the event’s website.
Hook will be swinging his golf clubs Friday morning and then attending the gala with his wife, Tracy.
“You really don’t know how good and how amazing this event is until you come here,” he says. “You think, ‘It’s another gala,’ but people come and generate [so much] excitement around it.”
Hook considers his family fortunate for never having had to use Arkansas Children’s Hospital, but he knows what an impact it makes every day. That’s because every year the gala features speakers, including a family who has benefited from the hospital.
In most cases, it is a family who likely would have lost a child were it not for the hospital. According to the foundation’s public relations director, Kila Owens, the hospital had 20,915 encounters with children from Northwest Arkansas in 2011. Its Angel One Transportation, the air and ground transportation system that takes patients to Little Rock for emergency care, made235 trips during the year.
This year’s family will tell the story of their daughter Ireland’s heart transplant.
“How fitting is that, thatthe girl is named Ireland and the color is green?” Hook says. “When you see those things, you really get a perspective on why we do this, and whatit’s all about.” For more information about Will Golf 4 Kids or the Color of Hope gala, call (479) 695-1304 or visit
willgolf4kids.org
.
Northwest Profile, Pages 31 on 08/05/2012