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Community Corner

Fundraiser For Joey Griffith Boasts Huge Turnout

Hundreds of people crammed the parking lot at Christina's on Friday.

Despite the rain, sleet and snow on Friday night, hundreds of people came out to Christina’s in Foxboro to show their support for 18-month old Joey Griffith and his family.

The fundraiser was designed to help the family pay for cancer treatments. Griffith was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor, and has undergone three chemo treatments already at the Children’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Center.

“He’s doing unbelievably well,” Joey Griffith’s mother, Jamie Kelley, said. “He recovered the quickest out of all [the previous] treatments. I almost feel like someone’s looking out for us.”

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Tom Kelley, brother of Jamie Kelley, said he planned the event and collected donations for the raffle and silent auction items. He said that the total estimated value of all the donated items came to at least $20,000.

Christina’s itself was mobbed. Even by 8 p.m., one hour after the start of the event, the parking lot was nearly full. Some people were using the advantage of their SUV’s four-wheel drive to make their own spaces in the snow banks while others combed the lot for an open spot.

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Jamie Kelley said she felt so thankful that so many people, many of whom she or her family did not know, showed up to the event.

“When my brother said that up to 800 people were going to be here, I was flabbergasted,” she said. “Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes. I think when people hear it’s a baby, they want to do anything they can.”

Jamie Kelley is currently on the coaching staff of the Foxboro and Franklin high schools respectively.

Tom Kelley said that planning the event was very difficult, because he had a very short time to do it. He said that the donations for the raffle and auction came in very quickly, and considerably helped get the event off the ground.

“It was crazy,” he said. “We also had a charity golf tournament, but we had seven months to do it. This is 60 days with over 800 people, it’s nuts.”

Tom Kelley also said that Joey’s tumor has not shown any signs of new growth. He seems to be reacting well to the treatment, and is expected to recover.

The raffle and silent auction had a vast array of donated prizes, with over 150 items up for grabs. The items included, but were not limited to signed sports memorabilia, including a signed picture of Bruins great Bobby Orr, vacations, gift cards, fine wines, various gift baskets, sporting event tickets, season Patriots tickets, Red Sox vs. Yankees tickets and various videogame systems.

No final tally has been counted yet for the dollar amount raised by the event, but with a $25 donation ticket price, the silent auction and over 40,000 one-dollar raffle tickets, the funds raised are bound to be considerable.

 “I don’t even know how to guess at this point,” Tom Kelley said. “We have 40,000 raffle tickets and I assume we’re going to be sold out of all those.”

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