THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 22, 1995 TAG: 9509210166
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 15 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LORI DENNEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
The stakes will be high but the odds good for those planning to partake of a little gaming at St. Jude's Casino Night on Saturday.
This year's event is the first held locally in 10 years by the Tidewater chapter of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.
About 800 tickets for the event already have been sold, and organizers are expecting a crowd of 1,000. The event also will be staffed by at least 60 volunteers.
This year, admission costs $10 and includes the chance to try your hand at some 10 games including blackjack, craps, or a spin of the roulette wheel. Tickets can be bought ahead of time or at the door.
With the admission fee, participants are given $3,000 in gambling chips, with each additional set of chips costing $5.
The event, from 8 to 11:30 p.m. at Ascension Catholic Church, 4853 Princess Anne Road, also will feature food, prizes and entertainment with an auction after the games have ended. Dress is casual.
Some of the prizes include the raffling of a late-model Ford Festiva from Action Auto Services and Hall Honda.
St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital was founded in Memphis, Tenn., by the late actor-comedian Danny Thomas and operates on non-profit donations. Currently, about 100 children from Virginia are being treated at St. Jude's, one of the nation's leading pediatric treatment and research facilities, said Don Stevens, the chapter's publicity chairperson.
``We'd like to re-establish this event as a regular thing,'' said Stevens, a local public relations consultant. ``The purpose of the casino night is fun but it's for a serious cause.''
That cause is the terminally ill children that the hospital sees and treats every day.
``Just 10 years ago the rate for curing a childhood cancer was just five percent,'' says Stevens. ``Today (thanks in part to research which comes from donations) that rate is slightly under 80 percent.''
Before 1985, the group held the charitable event nearly every year since its inception in the early '70s resulting in hospital donations from $3,000 to $30,000, said Pacific Romeo, a board member of the local chapter. by CNB