The 7th Annual Gabriella’s Scoop Night benefits Connecticut Children’s Medical Center’s Cardiovascular Care Center.

By Ronni Newton

Everyone loves to see a kid succeed with a fundraiser, and no matter how small the sum, collecting donations for a charitable organization is always a worthwhile endeavor.

Gabriella Giordano made her fundraising goal this year, raising an amazing $10,000 – no accidental extra “0” added to that figure – to benefit the new Cardiovascular Care Center at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center.

This is the seventh year that Gabriella has hosted a celebrity scoop night with her family as a benefit for Connecticut Childrens, and the event has gotten bigger and better each year. Although the ice cream was still supplied by the local Ben & Jerry’s store in West Hartford Center, this year the venue was switched to the courtyard at Blue Back Square which allowed much more space for serving frozen treats as well as dancing to the lively music of Fatgrip and all of the other fun family activities like face painting and hula hooping that are associated with Scoop Night.

Celebrity scoopers – from local media, West Hartford Police, West Hartford Public Schools, and the medical community – served up and topped hundreds of sundaes at the Aug. 27 event.

Raising money for Connecticut Children’s, especially the cardiovascular center, is a cause that is near and dear to Gabriella’s heart – literally. When Gabriella was five, she had open heart surgery at Connecticut Children’s. Each year she has celebrated her birthday with a fundraiser for the hospital that helped make sure she would continue to have those birthdays.

Gabriella celebrated her 12th birthday the day after her most successful fundraiser to date.

“Seven years ago, the doctors at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center fixed my heart. I am very grateful to all of the wonderful doctors and nurses, and Paula the child-life specialist who stayed with me and my family when we were in the hospital. I wanted to say thank you to everyone at Connecticut Children’s, so I am raising money to help them build a new Cardiovascular Care Center so they can fix more children’s hearts like me,” Gabriella wrote in her fundraising letter this year.

She raised $1,600 the first year, and since 2009 has raised approximately $20,000.

“Gabriella is thrilled to report she made her goal, and thanks to family and friends in our wonderful community, she raised $10,000 to benefit CT Children’s Medical Center’s new Cardiovascular Care center,” said Adria Giordano, Gabriella’s mom. Even Adria, a development professional, had seemed a bit awed by her daughter’s lofty goal and was thrilled to see her daughter succeed.

For more information, visit Gabriella’s fundraising page by clicking here. Watch for information about next year’s event, and the goals that Gabriella sets as she becomes a teenager.

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