Last night during one of the last off days for the Red Sox, Jon and Farrah Lester hosted a fun filled charity event for his #NVRQT Campaign to raise money and awareness for the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation (PCRF). The event was held at the House of Blues and started with a VIP hour where you could mingle with the players before the show started.
As expected, Lester’s teammates came out in support of him and the charity last night. The Sox players in attendance were Jarrod Saltalamacchia, John Lackey, Clay Buchholz, Will Middlebrooks, Aaron Cook, Andrew Miller, Daniel Bard, Mark Melancon, Ryan Lavarnway, Rich Hill, Andrew Bailey, Jacoby Ellsbury and Felix Doubront. I saw Bobby Valentine and Tom Werner at the event as well. Bruins Shawn Thorton and former Patriot Kevin Faulk were also in attendance. It was nice to see so many people coming out to support Lester and the cause.
Here are a couple of pictures of some of the players as they arrived at the event:
(Clay Buchholz, Jon Lester, John Lackey and Will Middlebrooks)
(Andrew Miller and his wife Katie)
(Aaron Cook, Jenny Dell and Jarrod Saltalamacchia)
The main event started by highlighting all the great work that the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation (PCRF) does. PCRF is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to supporting pediatric cancer research. It was established in 1982 with a vision to “bring hope and life saving treatments to children battling cancer and to improve the care, quality of life and survival rate of children with malignant diseases.” Since PCRF’s inception they have raised more than 30 million dollars in support of research which translates into immediate treatment for children with cancer.
#NVRQT is the main rally cry and mantra for the fight against pediatric cancer. They have partnered with Jon Lester by creating this campaign as part of the fundraising arm of the PCRF. They intentionally picked the name #NVRQT which can be easily used in social media campaigns such as twitter or facebook. I have seen Lester continuously tweet things about #NVRQT as the season has gone on this year. You can follow #NVRQT on twitter and on facebook.
Over the past few years I have continuously been impressed with how Lester has stepped up in support of charity causes. I’ll always remember him speaking when promoting the Charity Wines a couple of years back. Lester talked about how when he matured, he realized that part of his battle with cancer gave him the ability and opportunity to help others in similar situations. He talked about how that didn’t happen immediately, but that now that is a prime focus of his. I look at how dedicated Lester is now to the #NVRQT campaign and it just highlights how that journey is continuing.
The funnest part of the evening was when Jon and Farrah played a game of 3 Up, 3 Down aka a game of Tic Tac Toe. Emcee Mike O’Malley aka Kurt’s dad on Glee asked the celebrity players questions and then Jon or Farrah either agreed or disagreed. Some of the celebrity players were Jarrod Saltalamacchia, John Lackey, Will Middlebrooks, Shawn Thorton, Kevin Faulk and NESN’s Jenny Dell. It was a lot of fun to watch. FYI: Farrah totally won the game. The final part of the event was a music performance from Will Dailey. I hadn’t heard much from him before, but my ears liked what they heard.
All in all, a great time had by all. I hope to see many more #NVRQT events in the future. If you want to learn more about about #NVRQT or make a donation, click here. I took a bunch of pictures at the event so click here and here to check some of them out.
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