NEW YORK — As spy thrillers go, the plot could sound acquainted: A retired U.S. intelligence officer works quietly to maneuver high-value gadgets out of a battle zone. A high Ukrainian common personally indicators the contents and ensures they’re pushed safely away from the entrance strains of his nation’s raging battle with Russia.
The field of secret gadgets arrives in Washington with simply hours to spare. The retired intelligence officer covertly transports it to its ultimate vacation spot, the Spyscape museum in midtown Manhattan, the place it’s opened and the objects inside revealed in dramatic vogue to a crowd of former spies, nationwide safety professionals, journalists and enterprise leaders gathered in a second-floor ballroom nestled beneath the town’s iconic skyline.
That sequence of occasions, dramatic as it could sound, performed out final week and culminated on stage at a high-powered New York City gala to boost cash for kids battling most cancers.
The occasion, organized by the Jessie Rees Foundation and hosted by the Spyscape museum, included an public sale that noticed event-goers bid on a CIA humidor signed by former company director and retired Army Gen. David Petraeus, a tour of Fenway Park and prime seats to a Boston Red Sox recreation, autographed books and sports memorabilia, and different collectibles.
The most priceless factor on show was a collective expression of hope and solidarity for kids and their households dealing with the realities of pediatric most cancers prognosis, in addition to the pressure of chemotherapy, radiation and different most cancers remedies.
The espionage-themed undercurrent of the fundraiser introduced a particular sense of pleasure to the night, with a few of the highest bid-fetching gadgets on public sale having arrived in New York in secret.
Near the top of the public sale, Daniel Hoffman, a former CIA Clandestine Services officer, unveiled a Ukrainian flag signed by Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, and a Ukrainian nationwide workforce soccer jersey. The jersey bore the quantity “46,” representing the roughly 46 kids identified with most cancers on daily basis.
The jersey additionally bore the phrase “Never Ever Give Up,” the Jessie Rees Foundation mantra that has impressed numerous kids and their households across the nation to maintain up the struggle in opposition to most cancers.
“The Ukrainians know something about never, ever giving up in spite of Russia’s brutal aggression,” Mr. Hoffman, a columnist for The Washington Times, informed the gang as he confirmed off the Ukrainian gadgets that have been finally offered for a bid of $4,500.
The occasion raised $180,000, based on organizers, who mentioned 86 cents of every $1 raised will go on to caring for kids coping with most cancers, in addition to their households.
Named in honor of Jessie Rees, who died in 2012 on the age of 12 after a battle with most cancers, the group is maybe finest identified for its “Joy Jars,” delivered to kids’s hospitals across the nation and full of toys and different age-specific goodies for younger sufferers, designed to maintain up their spirits whereas they’re within the struggle for his or her lives in opposition to pediatric most cancers.
The challenge was the brainchild of Jessie Rees, who crafted the primary Joy Jars herself whereas preventing most cancers.
“She chose to run toward other kids, and show compassion and joy and empathy in the midst of her fight,” Jessie’s father, Erik Rees, mentioned on the occasion Thursday evening in Manhattan.
Inside every Joy Jar, he mentioned, is data for the affected household to affix “Club NEGU,” named after Jessie’s “Never, Ever Give Up” slogan. Beyond funding the jars themselves, donations to the muse assist fund an 18-month encouragement program for households and different initiatives the group has developed over the previous decade.
The Washington Times sponsored a desk on the occasion and members of its National Security reporting workforce attended.
Times National Security Team Leader Guy Taylor’s son Leo, 15, who’s battling a desmoid tumor, was additionally there selling his challenge to develop specifically padded shirts designed to cowl the medical port that almost all chemotherapy sufferers have surgically positioned on their chest. Having such shirts would assist shield the fragile port gadget and will give the sufferers extra capability to partake in bodily exercise, similar to enjoying basketball or leaping on a trampoline with their siblings or buddies.
On stage in New York City, Mr. Rees requested members of the viewers what number of of them remembered the place they have been through the terrorist assaults of Sept. 11, 2001. Save for the younger kids in attendance, each hand within the room went up.
But Mr. Rees then requested whether or not anybody remembered what they have been doing on March 3, 2011, the day his daughter, Jessie, was identified with most cancers.
“Life is the sum of defining moments,” he mentioned. “In your lives, that wasn’t a defining moment. March 3, 2011, was like 9/11 in the Rees home.”
Many of those that attended the occasion have seen their very own lives affected in a technique or one other by most cancers.
Mr. Hoffman’s spouse, Kim, died in 2021 after a battle with neuroendocrine most cancers. The former CIA officer drew a parallel between his previous occupation and the charitable work he’s doing now.
“What does espionage have to do with fighting cancer? Four words: Never, ever give up,” he mentioned. “That was additionally our mantra at CIA, by no means, ever surrender. That means exfiltrating our sources from behind enemy strains. It meant recruiting spies and stealing secrets and techniques within the so-called denied areas like China, Russia, Iran or North Korea.
“And most important of all, along the way, honor those who we lost in places like Baghdad and Benghazi,” he mentioned. “Honor their memories by carrying on with our sacred mission. And that’s what we’re doing here tonight.”
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