November 17, 2015 marked RESOLVE's 18th annual, Night of Hope, in Manhattan. As the cardinal event of the national infertility association, the gala promotes RESOLVE's mission to support men and women experiencing infertility.
Happy I got a photo opp with the Resolve dream team.
It was a fun and thoughtful affair, with about 375 people from all over the country in attendance. Here are some of the highlights:
Dr. Jason Griffith of Houston Fertility Institute won the Hope Award for Advocacy for his work to raise public awareness on infertility.
Julie Berman won the Hope Award for Service for her work to advance the mission of RESOLVE.
Bobbie Thomas, style editor of NBC's The Today Show, hosted the evening. Thomas mentioned that she began her advocacy on social media and received support from hundreds of thousands of women, prompting her to take on a greater role in promoting awareness of infertility as a medical condition.
The party favor for the evening was a magic eight-ball, with only a positive outlook for the future.
Karen Grote won the Hope Award for best blog. Grote said in her acceptance speech that she originally wanted to keep her identity as an infertility blogger anonymous but that her role in the community quickly changed that.
BASF Corporation now offers IVF coverage to their employees as an employment benefit because of a letter from one of their teammembers who needed treatment.
Alisyn Camerota, who won the Hope Award for achievement, was unable to be in attendance because her duties as a CNN anchor brought her to Paris to cover the events there.
Dr. G. David Adamson of Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) won the Barbara Eck Founder's Award for his leadership in the field of infertility.
The evening pledge goal of $50,000 was met with an influx of supportive text messages displayed on the big screen.
Not a single soul wanted to see Dr. Alan DeCherney have ice water poured over his head--the false prize for the pledge being met. We were all relieived to watch Bobbie Thomas sprinkle him with confetti instead.