Since its inception 33 years ago, the North American V Foundation has awarded half a billion dollars in cancer research grants.
The nonprofit’s Park City chapter will host a fundraiser at the U.S. Ski & Snowboard headquarters on Victory Lane to support this effort Thursday.
The event starts at 6 p.m. with a cocktail party and dinner to follow. Noah Elliott, a local Paralympian and cancer survivor, and V grant recipient Dr. Melissa Reeves, will share how the foundation has helped them to where they are today.
V Foundation Board member and organizer Dr. Nancy Romanzi said all funds raised will go directly to cancer research.
“We have no overhead because the foundation is completely endowed, and we can then give the money,” Romanzi said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour.” “We can turn it right around and give it to the researchers.”
Romanzi said the foundation has seen greater need with recent research funding cuts. The nonprofit awards $200,000 grants to research any type of cancer.
“We really stepped it up as a foundation when the government funding changes,” she said. “And when government funding changed, we started to fund that gap.”
She said the selection process is competitive with applicants from 72 cancer institutes in the U.S. and Canada.
“Those with the best scores are funded,” Romanzi said. “The challenge, of course, always is we have more that have great scores than we can actually fund. So, the idea would be to be able to fund all of them, and with that rigorous process, we identify the best of the best that go on to do great things with their research.”
She said previous grants helped create groundbreaking drugs like Keytruda, used to treat many cancers including melanoma, lung and breast cancers.
The V Foundation also has chapters in Napa Valley, Chicago, New York, Phoenix and Austin.
Tickets for Thursday’s event are $175 and available at v.org/parkcity.
