Dick Vitale optimistic to hit lofty $3 million gala goal

Not one to shy from a challenge, Lakewood Ranch’s Dick Vitale threw down the gauntlet: raise $3 million — the highest in his gala’s history.

The 12th annual Dick Vitale Gala is about a month away, and Vitale said he thinks they’ll get there by the night of the event.

“I think it’s a very realistic goal,” Vitale said. “It’s going to be tough, but it’s very realistic.”

On Tuesday, Vitale, on the strength of his philanthropy work for pediatric cancer research, will be the professional recipient at the 13th annual Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup in Atlanta.

The award honors outstanding role models among a college athlete and a professional or Olympian “for character and leadership both on and off the field, and for contributions to sport and society,” according to the Wooden Cup’s website.

This year’s event will debut a high school division of the award.

“It represents a lot of things I believe in,” said Vitale, who is in 14 different halls of fame. “It’s all about making good decisions, it’s about character, it’s about dedication, it’s about pride, and it represents John Wooden. John Wooden, to me, was very, very special. He’s a man who not only won national championships — 10 of them — but he represented all that was good about coaching.”

Meanwhile, the work to raise money for the annual gala that benefits pediatric cancer research for the Jimmy V Foundation presses on.

Mary Kenealy and Janet Allen are two people Vitale credits with the 24/7 work that’s needed to reach this year’s goal.

“You’re talking $3 million,” Vitale said. “You’re begging, you’re pleading, you’re out there working constantly.”

ESPN’s Chris Berman, West Virginia University head men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins and Notre Dame head football coach Brian Kelly are the honorees for the 2017 gala, which takes place Friday, May 12, at Sarasota’s Ritz-Carlton resort.

More than $18 million has been raised in 11 previous galas.

But among money generated for cancer research, Vitale said only four cents out of every dollar goes to pediatrics.

“That is a crime,” Vitale said. “And this year, we’re going to go over $20 million that we’ve raised for research since my gala started.”

This year’s event will also include a remembrance for the late John Saunders, a sportscaster who was a founding member of the V Foundation Board of Directors and multi-time emcee of the Dick Vitale Gala.

“He was a close friend,” Vitale said. “I was broken-hearted. ... I knew about John’s love for kids, because I watched him. I watched him at my gala. Every year for 11 years how he would go out of his way to find the kids that we would have there.”

Saunders passed away in August 2016.

Following that, Vitale set out to raise $250,000 for a research grant in Saunders’ name through the V Foundation to help kids.

To date, $600,000 was raised and that means Vitale will divvy it up into three different grants. The V Foundation committee determines what type of cancer the grants will be for.

That figure is included in the total goal Vitale has for this year’s gala.

And with plans to auction off packages for the Masters golf tournament, the Kentucky Derby and a Notre Dame football weekend, Vitale is optimistic his lofty goal of $3 million will be hit.

“All those things gets us big dollars, so I’m counting on those things coming through for us to get us the dollar (goal),” Vitale said.

This story was originally published April 10, 2017 at 5:20 PM with the headline "Dick Vitale optimistic to hit lofty $3 million gala goal."