To the editor:

The Bainbridge Island Bargain Boutique wants to thank the many volunteers and attendees at the “Be Part of the Cure!” fundraising event held at Grace Episcopal Church Saturday, Sept. 29.

Dr. Michael Jensen, Director of the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research at the Seattle Children’s Research Institute, spoke about his refinement of cellular immunotherapy — a method of reprogramming a patient’s own immune system — to kill cancer. This could make chemotherapy and radiation and their devastating side effects, treatments of the past. His game-changing research is now being put to the test in clinical trials and the results are very promising. There was a very active question-and-answer session following his presentation.

Local parents Rob Connelly and Allyson Brown also spoke of their experiences with their own children at Children’s, beautiful classical music was performed by “Bridges: A String Orchestra” and some Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra members, and the cast of “Masquerade: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber” (Ovation Performing Arts Northwest) performed musical numbers for audience entertainment.

Special thanks to Clark Construction and Flowering Around, and a warm thanks to local merchants who provided silent and live auction items.

While the Boutique’s entire profit is targeted to help fund uncompensated care at Children’s, we are proud to earmark the almost $16,000 raised to benefit Dr. Jensen’s research into the cure of childhood cancer from this event.

ROBIN DENIS

Manager

Bainbridge Island Bargain Boutique