It Certainly Was A Night To Shine!

On Saturday, May 6th, 450 guests gathered to celebrate the 4th Annual Night to Shine Gala + Auction where a record $285,000 was raised for the Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism, with an additional $226,000 donation made that night by GetAir, an indoor trampoline company! The new location, TripAdvisor’s global headquarters, provided the perfect backdrop for a wonderful evening of food, music and celebration.  There was certainly a lot to celebrate, as the past year was a busy one for the Flutie Foundation as highlighted by Executive Director Lisa Borges.

• 13,000 people were supported and $700,000 was distributed to service partners and families in need.
• Through special initiatives like the Alison Keller Technology Education Program, Safe & Secure Programs and Joey’s Fund, the Flutie Foundation continued to provide families with technology tools, safety equipment and direct financial aid in effort to enrich learning and life.

• Flutie Spectrum Enterprises employed 6 adults who earned paychecks and collectively worked 940 hours through the Office Solutions micro-business.  

This impressive list of accomplishments represents Doug and Laurie Flutie’s primary objective when they started the Foundation in 1998 — to provide people with a place to turn when they need support and autism resources.  Because of the generous supporters of this year’s gala and auction, the Flutie Foundation will be able to increase our grant making, technical assistance and direct service provision.

A large-scale event like the gala and auction does not happen without a whole lot of help. It would not have been possible without the generosity of our incredible sponsors, especially the Headliner Sponsor, Eastern Bank.  We would like to especially thank the host committee for their generosity, time and dedication in making this a memorable event – your efforts resulted in dramatic increases in the depth and breadth of types of auction items, the number of on line and live auction donors and gala attendees. Finally, a big thank you to you and your guests who kept both the auctioneer Susan Wornick and the dance floor quite busy! We look forward to working with you again for the 5^th Annual Night to Shine and welcome any of your friends and colleagues who may wish to join us!

As our honoree Sam Leone so eloquently analogized in her speech, raising a child on the autism spectrum requires those families who thought they’d “packed their bags for Italy but ended up in Holland” to have support for life’s journey.  It certainly was a ‘Night to Shine’ as our committee made it possible to continue and expand the support that the Flutie Foundation can offer.

All our best,