Visit the event website below to purchase your tickets today!
2024 Gala Volunteer Form
Are you interested in being an event sponsor, purchasing space in our event materials for advertising, or donating item(s) for our raffle baskets and silent auction? See the links below for more information.
Thank you for your support!
EVENT PROGRAM SPONSORS
Are you a business who would like to support the gala? Your company logo will appear in the event program from your generous donation choice.
Are you an individual/family that would like to support the gala? Your family name (Ex. The Smith Family) will appear in the event program from your generous donation.
Do you know the honoree family this year? Your generous donation can provide space for a message in the event program.
Thank you to our Sponsors!
Platinum
Gold
R&A Charter Services LLC
Handprints on Heart 2024 Honoree
The Brown Family
This year the Bryson and Baker Batt Foundation is honoring the Brown Family - Rachel, Matthew, and Oliver have had a long journey to building their family including in vitro fertilization and a long NICU stay. It's important to honor families like these who the foundation touches to share their story. It takes a strong heart and a lot of courage to endure what they've gone through.
​
Oliver Matthew Brown was born on October 1, 2023 at twenty-seven weeks and one day gestational age, weighing two pounds five ounces, and measuring seventeen inches long. Oliver’s journey to being born was a long one, and his journey to coming home to his mom, Rachel, and dad, Matthew, after 116 days at Ascension St. John’s NICU was even longer.
​
After two and half difficult years of trying to conceive, Rachel became pregnant in April of 2023 with the help of in vitro fertilization. Rachel and Matthew excitedly shared the news with their family and friends and enjoyed an uneventful pregnancy.
However, Rachel tested positive for COVID-19 on September 23, she informed her doctor and isolated to rest and recover. Rachel went to bed the night of September 30, but woke up with stomach issues and abdominal pain. She alerted her husband, who promptly called 911 because there wasn’t enough time to get to the hospital. Within minutes, the police arrived, and Oliver was born at 3:19 am at Rachel and Matthew’s home. He wasn’t breathing,but the police were able to clear his airway and get him breathing. An ambulance then took Rachel and Oliver to Ascension St. John.
The next few days were a blur of tests, meetings with numerous doctors and nurses in the NICU, learning medical terms, and spending time with Oliver. Over the duration of his stay, Oliver worked relentlessly to lower his respiratory support, breathe on his own, gain weight, overcome numerous medical issues, eat from a bottle, and come home.
After 116 days of ups and downs, exciting steps forward and terrifying steps back, resilience and perseverance, Oliver came home to Rachel and Matthew on January 24, 2024. Oliver is growing into a happy, strong baby who loves playing with his mom and dad, rolling over, smiling, laughing, and finding his voice.
"Throughout the course of his NICU stay, we received support from Oliver’s amazing NICU doctors and nurses, our family and friends, and the Bryson and Baker Batt Foundation. We received a NICU welcome package, several sunshine bags on Oliver’s toughest days, and our favorite and most cherished fleece blanket from the foundation.
These bags and packages seemed to arrive at the lowest times in Oliver’s NICU stay and helped us to feel cared for and looked after. This foundation, their generosity, and the Batt’s story provided our family with comfort, support, and connection during Oliver’s NICU stay, for which we will always be grateful."
- Rachel Brown