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CHANGING LIVES

Over $340,000 raised for specialized medical equipment, child-specific programming, and technology

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THE JOY OF FOOD

30 award-winning chefs from Memphis and across the country showcased their signature dishes

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FRIENDLY FUN

Chopped-style breakfast-battles captured the imaginations of the chefs and attendees alike

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THE SECRET INGREDIENT IS LOVE

Chefs take time to serve families, tour the hospital, and assist in Le Bonheur’s home-away-from-home for out-of-town families

Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital

Le Bon Appetit

Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and Chef Kelly English

Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, one of the nation’s best pediatric facilities, and renowned chef Kelly English partnered with LEO Events to organize Le Bon Appetit. The biannual fundraiser brings some of the nation’s most celebrated chefs to Memphis, Tennessee, to continue the mission of Le Bonheur.

Le Bon Appétit highlights the very best that Memphis has to offer – hospitality, community, philanthropy, and really great food. Bringing more than 30 award-winning culinary masters from across the country together, the 2022 event featured a chef lineup unprecedented in expertise, diversity, and talent.

The event took place at Memphis’ Crosstown Concourse, a venue that perfectly showcases the city’s innovative revitalization of historic buildings. With more than 1,000 tickets sold, the event welcomed attendees and VIPs into an unforgettable culinary showcasing surrounded by one central goal – to help change lives.

Challenge:

In planning the fundraiser, LEO Events prioritized precise budgeting to avoid overbuying and to raise the most funds possible to benefit Le Bonheur. LEO was responsible for providing the 30 chefs in attendance with all the supplies and equipment they needed to create their dishes for the night. In addition, LEO managed all transportation, hotel reservations, logistics, and flights for the chefs. The venue also posed an initial challenge in that it is accessible to the public; however, LEO Events was able to bypass this issue by creating its own borders within the venue. These chef station borders were an innovative solution that kept the evening feeling private and intimate.

Strategic Solutions:

LEO expertly crafted a communication plan to keep chefs and stakeholders in the know and managed all catering operations for the event. By utilizing kitchens and workspaces inside the multi-use venue, LEO provided chefs, sponsors, and attendees with a functional space that delighted the senses. Sponsorships and in-kind donations provided various services, including trash management, décor, valet, and more.

As of 2022, Le Bon Appetit has raised more than 1 million dollars to benefit Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.

 

Key Services Offered by LEO:

  • Event Management
  • Hotel, transportation, and logistics
  • Media relations
  • Sponsorship management
  • VIP experience

Hospital Grand Opening

A Hospital Visit, But Make It A Party

Nobody likes going to the hospital. Especially a child. But going to the hospital to celebrate the grand opening of a brand-new, $340 million, 610,000-square-foot children’s hospital equipped with the latest advances in caring for the children of Memphis? Now THAT’S a celebration we could kick our heels up for. LEO Events designed, coordinated, and implemented a public celebration for more than 2,000 people on a tight urban site with a fully operational hospital next door – all smack dab in the middle of the 100-degree heat of Memphis in June.

Recognized by Special Events Magazine for Best Event Produced for A Non-Profit, LEO warranted the grandest of celebrations by:

  • Managing consecration, public tours, participant coordination and logistics, communications and branding, staging and production, environmental design, entertainment, food and beverage, décor, VIP ceremony, fundraising gala, and donor reception
  • Incorporating a parade with 300+ participants and banner groups representing Le Bonheur’s history and stakeholders – narrated by Sesame Street’s Gordon and Maria
  • Providing guests with plenty of water and frozen towels, because there’s no need for a hospital visit during this hospital visit
  • Preparing detailed plans, maps, and additional parking communications to guests and hospital patients to ensure smooth arrivals and wayfinding
  • Helping boost the hospital’s media and online presence (the Grand Opening Event resulted in more than four hours of local TV coverage; 56 print media stories; 975 hospital tours; a 24 percent increase in Facebook fans; and more than $750,000 in donations for the week)

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