St. Jude patient Marit (center) poses with her sister, Crosbie, and brother, Carter, on the red carpet at the St. Jude Red Carpet for Hope gala in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
For the fourth straight year, St. Jude and Hollywood came together for the St. Jude Red Carpet for Hope.
Starting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as a film premiere, the last three years of the St. Jude Red Carpet for Hope have featured one of Hollywood’s biggest events — the Golden Globe Awards®.
On January 10, some of film and TV’s biggest names were honored at the Golden Globes ceremony, watched on television by millions of people around the world. And, across the country, St. Jude supporters gathered at the St. Jude Red Carpet for Hope to screen the star-studded event at local galas.
In 2015, the event grew from Minneapolis to include locations in Miami, Florida, and Chicago, Illinois, and this year expanded further to events in The Woodlands, Texas, and Orlando, Florida, raising $828,360 for St. Jude. St. Jude Red Carpet for Hope has raised more than $1.5 million to date.
Each screening gala featured a formal dinner and live and silent auctions, which took place before viewing the Golden Globes.
Michael and Berit, parents of St. Jude patient Marit, who is out of treatment and visits St. Jude for regular checkups, created the first St. Jude Red Carpet for Hope event in 2013 as a premiere for the film Star Trek: Into Darkness.
Berit, a self-proclaimed Trekkie, and Michael met director J.J. Abrams at a charity event, and a friendship followed. Abrams asked Berit if she would like a small role in the film, and she quickly accepted.
Michael and Berit sought to continue the event after its first-year success, but lacked a tie to another film premiere. Michael then had the idea to host a screening gala for the Golden Globes, which are presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association®. He was able to connect St. Jude with the Hollywood Foreign Press for the galas through his work as an entertainment executive.
“St. Jude is not just a hospital in Memphis, it’s a global treasure,” Berit said. “The Hollywood Foreign Press represents films from not just America, but the world. And certainly the patients who come to St. Jude are from all over the globe. So it feels like a good fit to me.”
At the St. Jude Red Carpet for Hope patient party presented by Lancôme, St. Jude patients watched the Golden Globe-winning film Inside Out at St. Jude Target House, the long-term housing facility for St. Jude families in Memphis. In a first for the event, scenes of the Target House party, and a live interview with St. Jude patient Courtney, were broadcast to the screening galas during commercial breaks of the Golden Globes.
And, for the second straight year, the St. Jude Red Carpet for Hope Teen Gala in Minneapolis was an important part of the event. Led by Marit’s siblings, Carter and Crosbie, the Teen Gala was organized by a committee of high school students, and it raised more than $101,000 for St. Jude — more than doubling the amount it raised last year. Disney Channel actor Ryan McCartan served as host for the Teen Gala.
Also involved in the Red Carpet for Hope planning was Evan, Michael and Berit’s oldest child, a student at the University of Southern California.
“It’s become a family affair, and we are happy to do it,” Berit said. “We are so happy to give back to a place that gave us so much.”