About the Night of Hope Gala

This year, the Night of Hope Gala will mark its 5th anniversary and has become one of the largest fundraisers in the country for ALS Research. The event will take place on October 1st, at the InterContinental Buckhead. The black-tie affair will begin with cocktails and music and include a seated dinner with live entertainment by the Craig Duncan Orchestra as well as a silent and live auction. Holly and Palmer Proctor and Susanne and Jef Wallace will chair the event and lead a large team consisting of community leaders from Georgia, Tennessee, Florida and Alabama.

The funds raised at the event are earmarked by the ALS Division of MDA, which leads the worldwide search for treatments and a cure for ALS. MDA maintains 37 MDA/ALS Centers across the country including the ALS Center at Emory University. In 2008 Emory University was named one of five MDA National Clinical Research Centers.

The Night of Hope Gala was inspired by Holly and Palmer Proctor. The 2006 event honored her father who was diagnosed with ALS in July 2005 and raised over $300,000 for ALS research. Since 2006 the Night of Hope Gala has raised over $1.8 million for ALS Research. Past chairs are 2007 Susanne and Jef Wallace, 2008 Libby and Carl Patrick and Sheri Sims-Hofherr and 2009 Leslie and Payton Neely and Brigitte and Bill Peck.

Over the past four years our sponsors have included: Turner Sports, Petro South, Coca-Cola Bottlers Association, Fidelity Bank, Choate Construction, Georgia Power, Emory University Hospital, The Coca-Cola Company, Sanofi-Aventis, CITGO Petroleum, Wachovia Bank, Coca-Cola of Sacramento and several others.