Children's Burn Foundation held its 27th Annual Giving New Hope Benefit at the Beverly Hilton on Tuesday, March 8, 2022. The evening honored Kathy and Charlie Toppino with the Giving New Hope Award. For the past 21 years, this dedicated team has generously offered their time, resources and leadership to ensure the ongoing success of the Foundation, expansion of its programs and rapid increase of its reach.

Founding Chair and Chairman Emeritus of The Board of Trustees of Children’s Burn Foundation, Doug Mancino, stated: "Kathy has been a highly effective Board Chair of Children's Burn Foundation for the past six years and before that a strong leader of the Council. Charlie has been a tireless fundraiser for Children’s Burn Foundation (CBF) through his leadership of our poker and golf tournaments. Together, they make a great 'Team CBF!'."

The Giving New Hope Benefit was hosted by The Board of Trustees and The Council of Children's Burn Foundation. Deb and Alan Barbanel, Lynda and Al Fadel and Adria and Pedro Martí served as Dinner Co-Chairs. The evening raised over 1.8 million dollars for life-saving programs to heal child burn survivors and their families through comprehensive physical, financial and emotional care while educating communities in California and across the globe on how to prevent and treat burns.

During the program, Kathy shared about the organization's recent accomplishments. "In the fall of 2021, we celebrated the opening of the new Fire! Science & Safety exhibit at the California Science Center. This permanent exhibit will bring the message of burn safety to more than 350,000 children each year, which quadruples our reach. It also raises the profile of CBF as one of the premier leaders of burn prevention, education and treatment for children in the world. Although a majority of childhood burn injuries are preventable, essential information on burn prevention and fire safety is frequently not taught in school classrooms, maternity wards, daycare facilities and many organizations dealing with childcare. Children's Burn Foundation continues to expand our prevention and education focus with programs and tools to fill this void. Additionally, CBF has always facilitated the best full-recovery medical care for young burn survivors. We continue to connect children with the best burn doctors locally and nationwide and help provide state-of-the-art care and reconstructive medical treatment at over 18 partner hospitals. Recognizing our role in the international burn community, CBF expanded our global outreach with another mission to Ukraine and continued support of a Burn Center of Excellence in Africa with more surgeries and expanded distribution of educational materials."

Retired NBC4 weathercaster and board member Fritz Coleman served as the highly entertaining master of ceremonies. The host of Battle of the Chefs, Chuck Dukas, led the live auction as a compelling auctioneer. Teenage burn survivors who have grown up participating in CBF programs shared their inspiring stories and were the focus of the evening. LA City Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas and incoming LA City Fire Chief Kristen Crowley were in attendance.

Cocktails, a silent auction and mystery boxes were followed by dinner, entertainment, award presentations and a live auction.