The 31st Annual Georgetown Lombardi Gala was held earlier this month at the Ritz-Carlton Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Georgetown University Medical Center and MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. Here, Vincent T. Lombardi II, grandson of the cancer center’s namesake, presented the John F. Potter, MD, award to Georgetown Lombardi’s Darren Mays.

Awards were presented to recognize remarkable individuals for their contribution to the fight against cancer. The Margaret L. Hodges Leadership Award was presented to Jeanne Ruesch, founder of The Ruesch Center for the Cure of Gastrointestinal Cancers at Georgetown Lombardi, in honor of her late husband, Otto. Here, longtime Georgetown Lombardi supporters Laurie Lapeyre and Walter Hodges Jr. presented the award, named for their mother, to Jeanne Ruesch, left.

Georgetown Lombardi and the NFL Players Association presented the 2017 NFL Players Association Georgetown Lombardi Award to television journalist and sportscaster Bryant Gumbel. This award was established to honor a leader in the sports industry whose life and family have been touched by cancer, and who encourages cancer research, prevention and treatment through awareness and philanthropy. Here, NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, who also serves as the gala honor chair, presented the award to Bryant Gumbel, left.

This black-tie event had over 700 in attendance and featured a cocktail reception, silent auction, dinner, the raffle of a Lexus and an after-party. All proceeds go directly to Georgetown Lombardi to support cancer research, treatment and education, with the gala having raised more than $23M since its inception. Here, CFS Group’s Tony Connor with Jill Kirkpatrick, Valentine Woyka, Steven Smith and John Collins.

This year’s event raised almost $1.4M. Plus, Tony and Jeannie Loop announced to the audience their $1M donation to establish the Jeannie and Tony Loop Immuno-Oncology Laboratory at Georgetown Lombardi for Dr. Samir Khleif, a newly recruited immunotherapy scientist. During the gala, Edwin Siegel was selected as the winner of the raffle for the brand-new 2017 NXF Sport Lexus. Here, Edwin’s grandson Brett Schweitzer holds the winning key on Siegel’s behalf and is flanked by Washington Nationals color analyst F.P. Santangelo and Washington Area Lexus dealers — Lindsay Lexus’ Ace Rezai, Lexus of Rockville’s Peter Bearsch, Pohanka Lexus’ Garry Whipkey and Lexus of Silver Spring’s Trevor Warwick.