On Saturday, May 11, a record-breaking 760 guests came together at the Boston Marriott Copley Place for the 37th Annual JDRF Boston Gala—One Night, a special evening celebrating the joint efforts of the entire community to cure type 1 diabetes (T1D).

Led by our outstanding emcees, Vanessa Welch and Mark Ockerbloom of Boston 25 News, JDRF New England was privileged to recognize this year’s honorees, Mindy and Dean Maines, and Nancy Jones Diabetes Champion Award recipient, SQZ Biotechnologies. Their hard work and unwavering devotion to being the momentum, the progress, and one day, the cure, inspires us all.

The Maines Family | 2019 Gala Honorees and 2019 Fund A Cure Speakers: Mindy and Dean Maines

We were thrilled to honor Mindy and Dean Maines as the 37th Annual JDRF Boston Gala Honorees for their passion, support, and their family’s embodiment of JDRF’s mission. We hope you take a few moments to watch the video created to honor Mindy and Dean.

Across the T1D community there are many stories from families and individuals of how living with T1D, and supporting those with T1D, requires full-time commitment and attention. This year, the Maines family eloquently shared their story of commitment, support, and dedication. We invite you to join the hundreds of people who have already supported JDRF. If you would like to contribute, please call us at 781-431-0700, give online, or mail a check to JDRF, Attn: Gala, 60 Walnut Street, Wellesley Hills, MA 02481. You may view Mindy and Dean’s heartfelt speech HERE.

2019 Nancy Jones Diabetes Champion Award Recipient: SQZ Biotechnologies

SQZ Biotechnologies uses its Cell Squeeze® platform to transform cells into sophisticated therapeutics. Cell Squeeze® was developed by SQZ CEO and founder, Armon Sharei, during his time as a Ph.D. student at MIT and uses microfluidics and high-speed deformation (or “cell squeezing”) to engineer cells with any biomaterial, resulting in sophisticated, complex and targeted therapeutics. SQZ was founded with the goal of realizing the technology’s broad potential to impact patients suffering from a range of diseases.

In 2017, the JDRF T1D Fund invested in SQZ to apply this therapy to T1D.  JDRF is proud to support the groundbreaking discoveries of SQZ, and invite you to view the video highlighting their exciting work.

Thank You to our One Night Partners
The evening would not have been possible without the astounding support of our JDRF community. We are so thankful for the amazing generosity of our Signature Sponsor, Bain Capital Community Partners. We offer very special thanks to our 2019 One Night Gala Chair, Jaleen Siekman, Gala Vice Chair, Lara Riley, and the entire Gala Committee for their unwavering efforts to make the evening a success. Many thanks to the Corporate Development Committee, led by Chair, Colin Motley, for all of their hard work and dedication throughout the year. We are also grateful to Exquisite Events and Cramer Productions for bringing our ideas to life through assisting in the creation and management of the evening’s program. We are so grateful to Brian Smith and his very talented team for producing the beautiful videos that showcased our honorees and JDRF. Special thanks to Hannoush Jewelers for providing the stunning diamond tennis bracelet for our raffle, Maribella for creating outstanding collateral, and the Boston Marriott Copley for their tremendous partnership. We would also like to recognize Kevin Trimmer Photography for capturing the memories, which may be viewed HERE, using access code: JDRF2019. Thank you to Portrait Simple for highlighting our T1D family so beautifully, and our friends at Boston GIF for providing a fun and exciting way to promote the magic of One Night through social media, found HERE.

Thank You to Our Volunteers!
Many thanks to the more than 100 volunteers who assisted the JDRF New England staff and Gala Committee leading up to, during, and following the event. We are a volunteer-based organization, and we are truly grateful to everyone who provided assistance, support, energy, and time to ensure this year’s Gala was successful.

Be the Momentum. Be the Progress. Be the Cure.