1990s – Children’s Medical Fund Luncheon

The 1990s witnessed the evolution of the Cancer Fund luncheon into the Children’s Medical Fund Luncheon, which still exists today as a biennial fundraising event of the Philoptochos Society.

The Cancer Fund Luncheon was first held in 1989 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City with over 700 guests in attendance. At that time, many children came to Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York City from Greece for cancer treatment. A second equally successful luncheon followed in 1990 after which time it was decided that the event should be held throughout the United States to benefit programs in other parts of the country.

Thus, in 1991, it was renamed the Children’s Medical Fund Luncheon, and it became a biennial event hosted on a rotating basis in the nine dioceses across the country. Since its inception, the Children’s Medical Fund has raised nearly $4 million dollars for children’s hospitals and research programs, as well as special programs that serve the needs of ill and fragile children, along with assistance to individuals and their families throughout the United States and in other parts of the world.

At the end of the decade, Philoptochos took two significant steps to increase the security and transparency of its finances and its social service protocol. The Greek Orthodox Ladies Philoptochos Society, Inc. Guidelines were established to outline all financial procedures and transactions; the Social Service Guidelines were also established to ensure that all requests for support were reviewed by the two Social Service Chairs, the Treasurers, the bookkeeper, and the President. These two sets of guidelines have been reviewed and updated throughout the years and serve as a model for ethical, secure, and transparent policies.

That was Philoptochos in the 1990s.