Eliot Gives $82,000 to Charity

The 1984 "Evening with Champions," an annual figure skating show sponsored by Eliot House, netted the largest contribution for charity in the fundraiser's 15-year history.

Event organizers presented a check for $82,000-which exceeds last year's sum by about $20,000-to Jimmy Fund President Michael J. Andrews last night in the Fliot House junior common room. The Jimmy Fund is the fundraising arm of the Harvard affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, which conducts cancer research and provides patient care in Boston.

"The tradition that has been established here far exceeds any fundraising event we've ever had," Andrews told a small gathering of event organizers and supporters. "This is definitely the leader of the pack," he said, noting that few other college efforts raise more than $1000 or $2000 for the Jimmy Fund.

Full House

The "Evening with Champions," which featured 14 world class and Olympic skaters, entertained sellout audiences three nights in a row last November. Among the skaters participating was Toller Cranston, the former Canadian men's champion and 1976 Olympic silver medalist.

WGBH Channel 2, Boston public television, broadcast the show and syndicated it nationwide.

Clark F. Spencer '85, co-president of the program, attributed the financial success of this year's show to stepped up efforts and financial innovations by the student organizers

Evens coordinators generated new revenues by investing an initial $15,000 grant from the Bank of New England in a money market account, said Douglas A. Zeghibe '85, the other co-president.

For the first time, the group also gained the donation of airline tickets by TWA for some of the champion skaters' flights to Boston. In addition, ticket prices were raised and fewer half-price student tickets were offered.

The result was an across-the-board increase in gate receipts and net profits, all of which went, to the Jimmy Fund, organizers said.

"We feel lucky to do something so socially relevant at such a young age," Zeghibe said