Healing Garden creators awarded at Rosecrance benefit

• Rosecrance Foundation Benefit raises more than $330,000 for charity treatment care

Staff Report

The families of John and Linda Anderson and John and Judy Anderson Graff received the Castle Award at the Rosecrance Foundation Benefit to recognize their visionary leadership and philanthropy to help create the Healing Garden at the adolescent campus, which opened in August 2004.

Other highlights of the April 11 benefit included a “Story of Hope” from a Rosecrance alumni, Peter P., a young man who received treatment through Rosecrance for heroin addiction.

Under the Streetlamp, a group featuring former “Jersey Boys” leads, entertained a sold-out audience for the dinner at Giovanni’s. The group sang doo-wop favorites and tunes by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, the Beach Boys, the Rat Pack and the Beatles.

The annual Rosecrance Foundation Benefit is the primary source of fund-raising to support The Kinley Charity Care Fund, which helps families in need of financial assistance for treatment. Through the years, thousands of families have benefited from more than $4.5 million in assistance.

The event raised more than $330,000 for the fund, which is used to help adolescents and adults who are uninsured or underinsured.

Lynne Vass, Rosecrance’s senior vice president of development, expressed gratitude to the community for ongoing support for the benefit and charity care.

“I am overwhelmed by the number of new and returning guests who supported the benefit this year,” Vass said. “Even in an economy that continues to be challenging, people stepped up in record numbers to help families that need care and can’t afford to get it without financial assistance.”

John Griffin, president/CEO of Kelley Williamson Co. and chairman of the Rosecrance Foundation Board, said the benefit is an “easy sell” in the community because people understand that virtually every family has someone who struggles with substance abuse.

“Imagine being in a position where you or someone you love deeply needs to get help as a matter of survival, and you simply cannot afford it,” Griffin said. “We wish to thank this generous community for helping Rosecrance meet the needs of families in distress.”

Another highlight of the evening came when Justice Kathryn E. Zenoff, Illinois Appellate Court, Second District, gave a tribute to Frank H. Ware, the longtime president/CEO of Janet Wattles Center, who died in February. Janet Wattles and Rosecrance entered into a formal affiliation in January. Under the new structure, Ware was guiding mental health services.

From the April 20-26, 2011, issue