LAWTON — The deadline to buy tickets for this year’s Children’s Starlight Fund event is just around the corner.
March 3 is the deadline to purchase individual tickets for the 16th annual event, which sell for $125 apiece. People may buy tickets by contacting the Comanche County Hospital Foundation at 580-250-5989.
Sponsorships for the fundraiser are also available at levels ranging from $300 to $10,000.
The fundraiser is set for 6:30 p.m. March 25 at the Hilton Garden Inn, 135 N W Second St. in Lawton. The evening will include live and silent auctions, dinner, a DJ and dancing.
New this year is an online auction for two tickets to country music star Blake Shelton’s March 17 concert in Oklahoma City, plus a one-night stay at the Skirvin Hotel. The auction will begin March 1 at www.ccmhgiving.com and end at noon March 14.
The Jersey Mike’s sandwich shop is contributing to the cause with a day of giving, set for March 22, Foundation Director Lea Ann Chandler said in a Feb. 15 interview. The shop will donate 100% of the proceeds from that day’s sales to the fund.
The annual fundraiser benefits the Children’s Starlight Fund, which supports Comanche County Memorial Hospital’s services for women and children. Those include the Children’s Starlight Fund, labor and delivery rooms and the neonatal intensive care unit.
“The funding allows us to purchase technology, equipment,” Chandler said. “And right now, some of the funds that we used from last year are going to renovate, through a capital project, our labor and delivery rooms.”
The 2022 event generated $304,000 for the cause, and organizers are hoping to match or surpass that amount this year, she said.
Over the past 16 years, the foundation has raised at least $2 million for women’s and children’s services at CCMH, said Dr. Richard Boatsman, chairman of the foundation’s board of directors. He said doctors and nurses in the Starlight and neonatal intensive care units draw up a list of projects for the board to consider each year.
“They correlate it with Brent Smith, who is the hospital CEO, and sort out what their needs are and kind of prioritize the needs,” Boatsman said. “And then, they come and present a request with those needs, and we try to raise the money to buy them. Or we’ll sometimes match funds with the hospital.”
He said the Starlight Fund is one of many funds the foundation maintains to support CCMH.