When the 10th annual Suitcase Party ends Thursday night, dozens of partygoers will go home with vacations, gift certificates, sunglasses and other prizes. But the real benefactors of the event will be the patients at La Rabida Children’s Hospital in Chicago.
La Rabida, this year’s Suitcase Party beneficiary, provides treatment and counseling to terminally ill patients and children with disabilities.
The money raised by Suitcase Party will go to the hospital’s child-abuse unit, where funding would assist construction of state-of-the-art, child friendly interview rooms, said Dianna Di Iorio, Suitcase Party co-chairwoman and a Weinberg senior.
Debra Marillo, vice president of development at La Rabida, said she is pleased Suitcase Party will fund the child-abuse unit because it is harder to get donations for that ward.
“There’s a period where specific issues are popular,” Marillo said. “As the public’s eye moves to a different effort, it’s harder to get funding.”
Public involvement in fund raising “waxes and wanes,” she said. “You go through fads as far as the public’s willingness to give financial support. But the issues don’t go away.”
The child-abuse sector was Dance Marathon beneficiary’s in 1998, when 406 dancers and other fund-raisers gave $431,524 to Dr. Paula Jaundes, CEO and president of La Rabida.
But Marillo said the relationships between La Rabida and both Suitcase Party and DM are similar.
“The level of involvement with the hospital has been consistent,” she said. “Many (DM participants) have become volunteers at the hospital as tutors and working directly with the children.”
Marillo hopes Suitcase Party volunteers will continue to support the hospital after the event.
Suitcase Party chose La Rabida because students could offer more than just monetary contributions, said Amy Kaelter, Suitcase Party outreach co-chairwoman.
“I felt we could help out both financially and through volunteering,” said Kaelter, an Education sophomore.
Along with 11 other Suitcase Party volunteers, Kaelter and her co-chairwoman Kiel Alward have visited La Rabida once a week — acting as playmates, tutors and mentors to patients.
“It’s a very warm, inviting atmosphere,” said Alward, an Education sophomore. “It’s different from any hospital I’ve ever been in.”
Kaelter said volunteering helps increase the patients’ happiness.
“You know you’re making their day that much better and that they’re making your day that much better,” Kaelter said. “It’s a mutually beneficial experience.”
La Rabida Development Officer Barbara Anderson said her interest in Suitcase Party grew after she attended the event last year.
“I was really interested because the hospital had been trying to become a recipient for a few years,” she said. “I was amazed at the organization of the whole thing.”
Suitcase Party’s four-hour main event begins 8 p.m. Thursday night at Patten Gym. Tickets are $7 and are available at the door.
