GRAFTON - The Loading Dock will be hosting Theresa's Summerfest on July 30 to raise funds for the Sitemen Cancer Center to help improve metastatic breast cancer research.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
Josh Newby, Founder and Executive Director of Theresa's Research Foundation, said this is the first year of what will be an annual Summerfest. What makes this year's event even more special is that it would have been his mother Theresa's 50th birthday.
"This is the first time we've done the Summerfest," Newby said. "We hadn't held a fundraiser in a while. We decided we needed to get together this year and do something. Since it's mom's birthday we wanted to do it in July. We're excited to get back into the riverbend area and let everyone know what we've been up to."
Theresa and Josh started the organization in Alton with the goal of helping to fund and advance research for metastatic breast cancer in 2013.
"At the time there really wasn't a lot of awareness around it," Newby said. "We thought it would be a good opportunity, and my mom's thought was what if someone was doing this that didn't have cancer. So that's were she got me involved and we started planning and developing it. What we're trying to do is really advance research, create awareness and excelerate things as much possible to improve outcomes for patients. Now we're wrapping up our fourth year and we're really excited about where we're at. We've funded lots of research at the Sitemen Cancer Center as well as other cancer centers around the U.S. We host the only annual medical conference in the world for metastatic breast cancer."
Newby said the event will be a great way to bring everybody together to celebrate, reflect and look at how to move forward.
"Everyone's been impacted by cancer in one way or another in their life," Newby said. "I think this is a good opportunity to celebrate my mom's life and celebrate all lives that have been impacted by cancer whether it's them personally or a loved one. We all know that we need to fund more cancer research and to do that we need to create awareness."
Theresa's Summerfest will take place at the Loading Dock on July 30th from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. with live music from Griffin and the Gargoyles, craft beer tasting, lunch and much more.
Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 the day of the event and the first 150 guest will get a souvenir glass.
More like this:
