Late Knight Warriors will host Cocktails for a Cause on Saturday, Nov. 15, to raise funds for 1-year-old Jackson Berry of West Babylon, who is battling an aggressive form of leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant.
The event, which runs from 6 to 9 p.m. at Tap Room, 44 E. Main St., Bay Shore, will direct all proceeds to support Jackson and his family.
Tickets are $100 each and available through the Late Knight Warriors website for adults 21 and older. The ticket includes an appetizer buffet with “tons of food,” from wings to sliders to Mediterranean dishes, a signature open bar, and desserts donated by Tap Room, said Laura Gottfried, a Holtsville resident and member of the Late Knight Warriors nonprofit.
Gottfried compared the event to “what you would expect at a wedding where you can mingle and talk to people.”
Other highlights include a Chinese auction, a 50/50 raffle, and goodie bags with handcrafted ornaments by The Rustic Workshop in Farmingdale.
“Our mission is to have good times for good causes,” Gottfried told South Shore Press. Over the past year, the 100-plus-member group raised funds through a movie night for the American Heart Association and a bar crawl for St. Baldrick’s Foundation, which hosts head-shaving events to support children with cancer.
Jackson’s medical condition became public around the time Late Knight Warriors was focusing on supporting local families, Gottfried said. “We did decide we want to hit more local families," she said. “You can see the help that you’re doing.”
Cocktails for a Cause will be “the first one for a local family,” she said. Some friends of Jackson’s father, Shaun Berry, are also members of Late Knight Warriors, which made the family an obvious choice for fundraising.
She explained, “Shaun’s wife Jenna had to quit her job to spend all her time in the hospital with him (Jackson). She doesn’t want him in the hospital by himself, and he’s spending a lot of time there.”
Berry continues to work for the Town of Brookhaven, his employer for about 20 years, but the family faces medical bills and the loss of Jenna’s income.
In an interview with South Shore Press, Berry shared his gratitude for community support and discussed the next steps in Jackson’s treatment.
“The kid’s a trooper. He’s been through a lot and he’s still smiling pretty much the whole way,” Berry said. “He’s home right now, which is a blessing. Then he’ll be back at Stony Brook (University) Hospital for another month with seven days of treatment and three weeks of observation.”
Doctors will monitor his immune system before he moves to New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center for a bone marrow transplant.
“It all started Labor Day weekend, and he has one of the most aggressive forms of leukemia (Acute Myeloid Leukemia—AML), but so far so good. His test results are coming back good,” Berry said.
Community support has included a sponsorship letter from Stony Brook Hospital for the holidays, a fundraiser through John Sarno at VIP Room in Patchogue, and help from Angels of Long Island thrift store in East Patchogue.
Gottfried said Cocktails for a Cause has drawn strong backing through ticket sales and donations from Tap Room, Minuteman Press of East Northport, and The Rustic Workshop, along with sponsorships from Bulovas Restorations of Holtsville and the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 15. Many companies have donated baskets or gift cards for the Chinese auction, and some individuals who cannot attend are also contributing.
She described herself as “pleasantly surprised" by how much the community has rallied around Berry, his wife Jenna Busterna, and their blended family of four children, ages 1 to 18. Donations will help meet the family’s ongoing needs.
Late Knight Warriors has been supporting others in need for about 15 years but became a nonprofit roughly two years ago, allowing for more ambitious fundraising projects.
“Honestly, I think it was a really nice, organic progression the way everything came through,” Gottfried said. “For me personally, it comes full circle. When I was younger my brother had leukemia. Community support really helped my family. It means so much that I’m able to pay it forward to another family and help them out in the same way.”
The Long Island-based nonprofit started as a group of friends who hung out at the former Half Penny Pub in Sayville after their shifts.
“A lot of us worked in the bar and restaurant industry. That’s where Late Knight came from,” she said. “As a joke, one day, the bar manager coined us the Late Knight Warriors and started a Facebook group about 15 years ago. We hosted a giant fundraiser when the bar manager got sick. After that someone else needed help, so we did another fundraiser,” she said.
For more details on Cocktails for a Cause, visit the Late Knight Warriors website. For updates on Jackson’s journey and a GoFundMe link, visit berrystrong.org.