Cheers for CHOP Featuring Salt-N-Pepa
On Saturday, February 28th, the 2nd Annual Cheers for CHOP (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) was held at the Valley Forge Casino. This year the event was moved from the dance club to the ballroom to accommodate the 700 guests on hand. Philadelphia Event Planners gave that cavernous ballroom a night club atmosphere with reserved tables for 10, high tops and a communal table that ran the length of the dance floor; lining the walls were semi-private cabanas with their own servers.
The dance floor’s LED spelled out Cheers for CHOP, and to kick off the night the 1990s rap group Salt-N-Pepa (with DJ Spinderella) got the groove going by singing some of their biggest hits. DJ Bizz kept the party going by spinning till midnight, as guests enjoyed a banquet of food and dessert as well as specialty cocktails.
This year’s event raised $675,000 for CHOP’s Child Life, Education and Creative Arts Therapy program — one of the first programs in the country to recognize the therapeutic value of play for hospitalized children. The evening’s special guest was 19-year-old CHOP patient Tom Gillin — who became Internet-famous last year with the Jay Z-inspired “Bald So Hard,” which he performed with Mike Mahoney.
For best results, view gallery in full-screen mode.
HughE Dillon covers parties, events and more for Philadelphia magazine’s The Scene. You can follow him on Twitter at @iPhillyChitChat and visit his daily online social diary PhillyChitChat.com.