by intern Nicole Nicholas
Photo credit: Nicole Nicholas
“This is an incredible event done in the spirit of helping sick kids,” said Richard Goldberg MD, President of MedStart at Georgetown University Hospital. “We’ve been doing this event for several years.
Mike Sachtleben, Richard Goldberg MD, Paul Leleck
Actually, one of the founders of the event was a parent whose child had cancer and was treated at our hospital, survived and is doing well, so he was inspired to put this event together to help other children with cancer.”
Child Ambassador Alesia Allen, who is eleven years old, was adopted from Russia and received her treatment at the Georgetown University hospital, is happy and healthy now! Her favorite tree was the Venetian Fantasy Tree because of the “pretty blues that were in it.”
Alesia Allen with her brother Steven Allen
The event, held at The Four Seasons, brings together the DC design community to decorate Christmas trees which are later auctioned off to MedStart. The 8th Annual Georgetown Jingle is a family holiday event that has raised more than $1.5 million for Georgetown Hospital’s Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Unit and Childhood Cancer Survivorship Program. This charitable event helps spotlight childhood cancer, the leading cause of death among US children between infancy and age 15.
Tricia Huntley
Tricia Huntley, who designed a rather different Christmas tree for the auction said: “So as you know, each year designers are asked to make trees and I just wanted to do something outside the box because you know with Christmas and holidays, people are getting a lot more modern and doing different things, and I happened to find this bird cage in Georgetown and I thought it was the perfect thing to display the lights and the boxes and kind of do something outside the box for Christmas spirit”
Julie Shanklin and Marielle Shortell
When asking what inspired her to do this event, Julie Shanklin, a designer of the “Modern Metallic Mod” Tree said: “When we heard about the charity being for children in the oncology department, we were very excited to do the event. We wanted to do something over the top, something that would bring in a nice donation to the charity.” Julie Shanklin also worked with Marielle Shortell on this fabulous tree.
The Georgetown Jingle will take place the 15th of December to benefit children with cancer. There will be two separate events, one for family and one for just adults, due to escalated interest in attending this year.
There will be pictures with Santa, caroling, Georgetown cupcakes, great food and cookie decorating. The later event will display many famous DC restaurants. Tickets are available for both events online.
