A past Harvest for Hope event, benefitting children with cancer. (File photo courtesy of the Emilio Nares Foundation)

The Emilio Nares Foundation is hosting its 22nd annual Harvest for Hope event in September to raise funds and awareness for children battling life-threatening conditions.

“It’s so special because it’s a nice celebration of everything that we’ve not only achieved within the last year and the last 23 years, but what we can achieve in the near and the long future,” said Tania Zavala, development manager of the Emilio Nares Foundation.

The Emilio Nares Foundation was founded in 2002 after Emilio Nares, 5, who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, passed away. The Nares family felt immense support during Emilio’s battle, but they realized that not every family had the same experience. Hoping to extend the support they felt, Richard and Diane, Emilio’s parents, launched the foundation.

The Harvest for Hope event brings together 300 supporters, families, food and drink vendors and more for one night of celebration and awareness. The evening event, from 6 to 9 p.m. Sept. 4, raises funds for the nonprofit and spreads the word about its mission: offering support and resources for the families of children who are fighting for their lives. 

The foundation offers a multitude of services, the main one being its Ride with Emilio program which provides free transportation for families as their children undergo medical treatment.

For Randy Smerik, the transportation program is one of the reasons his restaurant, Solare Ristorante, is an event vendor and partner.

“There’s a lot of children out there that just can’t get to the hospital or can’t get to their medical care, because they may have a single mom or a single dad that’s working. Even though everybody wants that child to get care, there just is no way of doing it,” Smerik said. “It’s kind of like a last-mile problem that I believe, until I heard about ENF, I think was just kind of a forgotten piece.”

Solare Ristorante isn’t just a partner with Harvest for Hope, but a legacy partner building on 12 years of collaboration. Each year, Solare Ristorante becomes more involved than the previous year.

Beyond believing in the cause, Smerik comes back each year because of the foundation’s ability to innovate while remaining focused on its mission. Smerik said Solare’s values also align with the foundation, making the partnership that much easier. 

“They’re both very family-run organizations. We both share a lot of the same values, of how we work with other people, how we honor our commitments and so on,” Smerik said.

Zavala, with the foundation, echoed the same sentiment regarding the foundation’s relationship with its legacy donors.

“The reason why we can call them legacy donors and partners is because we’re both driven on each one of our ends to the same mission. So we’re both passionate about what our mission or organization is doing for the families and in the communities,” she said.

The Harvest for Hope event is now in the first week of September, a change from earlier years when it was later in the month. September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, so the September date is no coincidence.  

“Now that we changed it to the beginning of the month, it’s just giving us an opportunity to kind of continue talking about it. So we still like to continue campaigning until the end of the month to ensure that we continue service to families,” Zavala said. 

Tickets are still available, and the foundation, along with its sponsors, encourages all members of the community to join in the festivities.

“This fundraising event is a testament to the incredible support of our community. Together, we’re building a future where every family facing childhood cancer knows they’re not alone — and have a village behind them,” Elsa Morales-Roth, executive director of the foundation, said in a press release.