DorobekINSIDER: AFCEA Bethesda’s 12 annual benefit for The Children’s Inn at NIH

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DorobekINSIDER: AFCEA Bethesda’s 12 annual benefit for The Children’s Inn at NIH

The 12th annual AFCEA Bethesda annual charity ball to Benefit the Children’s Inn at NIH. It is often one of the best events of the year — and this year...

Federal News Network Staff

April 26, 2010 2:00 am

2 min read

The 12th annual AFCEA Bethesda annual charity ball to Benefit the Children’s Inn at NIH. It is often one of the best events of the year — and this year was no exception. (Congratulations to Microsoft’s Teresa Carlson and Mark Hollander, Associate Director for Management at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. They served as the co-chairpeople for the event.)

The NIH Children's Inn Gala

For those of you who don’t know about it, the Children’s Inn is similar to the Ronald MacDonald houses — they are a place where families can stay near the hospital and have as normal of a life as is possible. Over the years, AFCEA Bethesda has raised more than $2 million to benefit The Children’s Inn at NIH.

If you were not able to attend and you want to donate to the Children’s Inn at NIH, it is a wonderful cause… and $93 buys a day at the Inn for somebody. You can make your donation here.

You can see a slideshow of the event here.

AFCEA Bethesda does a great job with this event. There was a new location for the event this year — the JW Marriott, which allowed for more tables.

Each year, the gala features one of the Inn’s families who talks about life at the Inn. It is always one of the highlights of the evening, and this year was no exception. This year, we got to hear from Kaytelan Hoppes, an 8-year-old who has osteogenesis imperfecta – better known as brittle bone disease. It is a condition that causes extremely fragile bones. And Hoppes talked about the impact that the Inn has had on her family — the ability to have a home away from home. (And she even let it be known that it enables her mother to get an occasional massage. Given what these families go through, whatever it takes to survive. Good for Mom!)

The only snag of the evening — a fire alarm right at the start of the live auction. (You could tell the journalists in the room because none of the people at the Federal News Radio table moved.) The immediate concern was that it would scare people away — and, of course, that they wouldn’t return and it would impact the live auction prices. But… the false alarm sure didn’t seem to have an impact. Most of the items — including a Vespa that the DorobekINSIDER was bidding on — all went for more then their estimated values.