The New Mexico office hosted their 3rd Annual Evening of Hope Gala on Friday, June 1^st and their 8th Annual Tee Up to Cure Diabetes Golf Tournament on Saturday, June 2^nd.

This amazing and truly inspiring weekend began with old cars and the hand jive at the “Rock & Roll For a Cure.”  The greeting area, silent auction and ballroom looked fantastic with draped ceilings and vintage cars parked in the ballroom.  Over 350 guests attended the event on Friday night and bid on silent auction items ranging from a leather rug to beautiful jewelry. The silent auction raised over $17,000.  The live auction kicked off with a surprise package of a private dinner with Mark and Cindy Ballard at the home of Tom Bohlman from Lexus of Albuquerque and ended with a football fanatic’s dream trip on a private jet to see the Cowboys vs. the Bears at a Monday night football game. Our live auction raised more than $36,000.  After a heartfelt honoring of Doug and Michelle Clark, our auctioneer Jeff Stokes led the Fund-A-Cure portion of the event. Four $10,000 bidders and the match of the adorable Cardoza girls’ $56.25 piggy bank later, Fund-A-Cure raised more than $107,000!  A special thanks to all of our Board Members in attendance including Craig Brown, Louis Hernandez, Ryan Jaseph, Chris Keller, Robin Girand, Laurie Schatzberg and Tom Statzula.  A very special thanks to Mark and Cindy Ballard for being our Endowing Hope Honorees and to Marilyn Kraft for leading an incredible gala committee again this year. 

But that’s not all!  After all the fun we had dancing the night away at the Gala, many of us saw the sunrise as we set up for golf the next morning. The support of Lexus of Albuquerque we received once again this year put us at the forefront of golf tournaments in our community. Tom Bohlman even parked his $400,000 Lexus LFA right in front of the clubhouse for all to awe.  Every single player walked away from our tournament with a Nike hat, a Nike pullover (courtesy of Firestone), and a custom built Nike driver (retail value of over $300 courtesy of Lexus of Albuquerque). The golfers enjoyed near perfect weather and then arrived back at the clubhouse for lunch provided by Tucano’s. RockyMountainStone provided this year’s tournament awards which were one-of-a-kind polished and laser engraved river rocks. The weekend could not have been topped off any better than it was when Michael Statzula drew the winner of the Lexus Pebble Beach trip and it was none other than our own Board President, Joe Hughey! Our initial projection for golf total gross revenue is $78,000.  Many Board Members also helped and attended the golf tournament, but special thanks to Chris Keller for selling 20 Lexus raffle tickets and to Craig Brown for selling 15.  This tournament would not be what it is without the leadership of Mark Ballard. Thank you so much, Mark for all that you have done and continue to do for this event.  Here’s to $1 million raised from golf alone by 2014! 

What an amazing weekend!   Between the two events, Breakthrough T1D New Mexico raised over $293,000 in gross revenue. 

Congratulations and thanks to all!!
Desert Southwest Chapter Staff