Christmas Without Cancer Event at Cork & Kerry This Saturday

-Submitted Post

The Kennedy Feel Good Foundation is sponsoring a Christmas Without Cancer fundraiser this Saturday, October 12 from 4 to 9 p.m. at Cork & Kerry, 10614 S. Western Avenue.

“Christmas is the greatest of giving seasons, so we are getting going earlier than we normally do at Cork,” said Cork owner Bill Guide, in a news release. “We are thrilled to know the first Christmas party of the season will benefit area families in dire need of emotional and financial support.”

The Kennedy Feel Good Foundation is a local grassroots organization that supports community, friends and neighbors and chose to host a fundraiser for Christmas Without Cancer. Supporters are asked to bring a gift card valued at $25 or more for a day of craft beverages, wine, food, music and prizes. Admission without the gift card is $30.

“We are honored Kennedy Feel Good has selected Christmas Without Cancer,” said CWC founder Gerri Neylon. “This would be like Santa putting the elves to work right after Labor Day. We’ll have many more resources early in the Christmas season for those families faced with cancer issues.”

Santa and a helper pledge to be on hand for photos and early wish lists. The Stockyard Kilty Band will also make a special appearance.

Alli and her brother Patrick founded Kennedy Feel Good to benefit their respective home bases of Beverly and Mt. Greenwood.  Christmas Without Cancer provides gifts and basic necessities to Southland families with members stricken with cancer. In each of the last 10 years, Evergreen Park resident Gerri Neylon, a nurse in the radiation oncology department at Advocate Christ Medical Center, has led a team of volunteers on a seasonal blitz to bring holiday cheer to families affected by cancer.

Partners such as the Kennedy Feel Good Foundation have offered to “carry their water,” introducing new circles of friends into the donation effort.

Neylon knows first hand the burden cancer inflicts on a family.

“The families’ challenges are physical, emotional and financial,” Neylon said. “The CWC team takes great satisfaction in addressing some of those challenges so the family can devote themselves to each other during the beautiful Christmas season.”

Since 2003, the organization has quietly identified and adopted multiple families in late fall and by Christmas season supplied them with gift cards for groceries, medications and gas, among other “need” items.

Saturday’s Kennedy event will be a reunion in a sense. Families will gather and bring other friends and loved ones who shared the struggle and the loss. While some have survived the clutches of cancer – and others have not – the gathering, says Neylon “is symbolic of the need to persevere and lean on one another in times of despair.”

In addition to the party, Joey, Digs and the Dentist will play their collection of cover hits from all decades. CWC’s Kennedy Feel Good Day includes door prizes, basket raffles and raffles of sports jerseys, silent auction, food, beer, wine, music.