Friday, March 29, 2024
39.0°F

Northwest Notes Sept. 5, 2020

| September 5, 2020 1:00 AM

Few honored — virtually

— at Dick Vitale Gala

Gonzaga men's basketball coach Mark Few was honored Friday night at the 15th annual Dick Vitale Gala that benefits The V Foundation for Cancer Research. Net proceeds from event will be awarded to pediatric cancer research and related programs through The V Foundation.

Few was honored alongside Tampa Bay Buccaneers football coach Bruce Arians and ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith. The gala also honored Courage Award recipients, former Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly and Orlando Magic co-founder Pat Williams.

The event, which is usually held in person in Sarasota, Fla., was transformed into a pre-recorded virtual show this year, produced by ESPN staff. Last year's event raised $4.3 million.

In 2002, Few and his wife Marcy initiated the Spokane branch of Coaches vs Cancer. The Fews' annual event would become the largest Coaches vs Cancer fundraiser across the country. In 2007, Gonzaga began hosting the Ronald McDonald House Charities Classic. For six seasons, these annual games helped raise over $750,000 for Spokane's Ronald McDonald House.

The Fews and others in the Spokane region launched the Community Cancer Fund in 2014 to keep more money in the local market while devoting more resources to cancer patients, their families and the local organizations that serve them. In the last six years, the Community Cancer Fund has raised over 17 million dollars bringing the total raised over 18 years between the organizations to well over 25 million dollars.

Among the highlights, the charity established a 3-million-dollar endowment to fund Camp Good Times, a week-long summer camp for kids with cancer. And this year, the Community Cancer Fund worked to increase lodging options for cancer patients and their families traveling to the region for treatment, which included the completion and opening of a 5-million-dollar Hospitality Center at Kootenai Health and a campus expansion of Spokane's Ronald McDonald House.

"It has been amazing to watch Dick do what he does better than anybody," Few told the East County Observer newspaper in Florida. "And that is motivate people to get out and actually fight, to take action. We are humbled and fired up to be a part of this, because it does not get any bigger than Dickie V."

Information: jimmyv.org/vitale