Magician To Perform Fundraiser For LI's Sarah Grace Foundation

JERICHO, NY — The Sarah Grace Foundation for Children With Cancer is set to host a fundraising event featuring a night of dinner and magic.

"An Evening of Magic with David Schwartz" is slated for July 12 at the Milleridge Inn’s Philodendron Room.

Pre-purchased tickets are required and cost $125, with admission including entertainment, dinner, dessert, drinks, and a strolling magic pre-show. Tickets can be purchased here.

Schwartz is an award-winning magician who uses a combination of mind-reading, sleight-of-hand, and humor to entertain and delight his audiences. When not performing at private parties, corporate events, or for the New York Yankees, Schwartz is a featured performer off-Broadway at Monday Night Magic, which is New York’s longest-running magic show.

"I am thrilled and honored to partner with The Sarah Grace Foundation to raise money so they can
help children and families impacted by childhood cancer," Schwartz said in a news release.

The Sarah Grace Foundation has been supporting children with cancer and their families
since 2003, in memory of Sarah Grace Weippert. Based in Hicksville and supporting the Long Island and New York City area, the foundation has since expanded and started working with children’s hospitals in Central Florida as well.

"Every year, over 4,000 children die from cancer," said Matt Weippert, Sarah's father and the foundation's executive director. "Roughly 46 children are diagnosed every day — and 1 in 5 of them will not survive. We are all too familiar with their struggle, and we continue to do all we can to improve their quality of life."

Click here to meet The Sarah Grace Foundation through a Q&A.

This is the Sarah Grace Foundation's largest fundraising event of the year, Weippert told Patch. The foundation is pivoting from a comedy night it had held for years before the coronavirus pandemic shut in-person functions down in 2020. The charity previously had multiple comedians, raffles and a dinner at the Milleridge Cottage.

"We really struggled with events and trying to get back to a larger in-person event," Weippert said. "That comedy night really raised a good amount of revenue for us. As we surveyed some people who had attended the last couple comedy nights, they all enjoyed it, the meal and the reason they were there, but they wanted something a little different."

Sarah was a fan of magic shows, and a couple of people presented Schwartz to the Weippert family. He was "very cordial," Weippert said, and the foundation has inserted him as a focal point of the evening.

The foundation, buoyed by a dedicated all-volunteer team since its inception over 20 years ago, has continued to provide assistance wherever possible to these families. Coordinating with social workers at pediatric cancer centers such as those at Cohen, NYU Langone Cancer Center for Kids, Stony Brook, Montefiore, Presbyterian and more, the foundation is able to identify children and families most in need and provide financial aid, comfort and support for these children who ask only "to be kids, not patients in a hospital," Weippert said.

"Thanks to the generosity of our donors and their support, our core programs such as The Escape Hatch, The Bead Program, Gabe’s Chemo Duck, and Sarah Grace’s Book Angels have been able to carry on," Weippert said. "Additionally, we continue providing financial aid for meals, transportation, household expenses, and funeral expenses when necessary. Until Sarah got sick, we never knew how many children were afflicted with cancer and how many local treatment facilities were necessary to care for them. We understand their pain and anxiety and have done all we can to ease that stress for more than 20 years."

Requests for information may be sent to The Sarah Grace Foundation at 17 E. Old Country Road, Unit B, PMB 202, Hicksville, NY 11801 or by calling 516-433-9745. People may also email Weippert with questions at Matt.weippert@thesarahgracefoundation.org.