Hutch’s 25th anniversary celebration: ‘A dream and imagination created one of the best’

Don and Dottie Thomas joined 200 patients at the Hutch reunion (top left). Pike Place Market and many other workplaces helped honor the Hutch with anniversary banners while hundreds of people wrote messages of hope at a Westlake Center rally (top right, bottom right). Former Washington Gov. Dan Evans and Ted Kennedy Jr. were among the dignitaries who attended a community luncheon for the Hutch (bottom left). Photos by Guy Kramer

From Space Needle rides to reunions to open houses, thousands of people joined in the celebration to honor the Hutchinson Center on its 25th anniversary last fall. A flurry of events from August to October brought people to the Hutch from throughout the United States and around the world to recognize its accomplishments in the fight against cancer.

Many people whose lives were saved by Hutch research efforts gathered in Seattle in early August for a patient reunion. Nearly 200 bone-marrow transplant patients and 500 family members attended.

More than 1,000 people participated in public events to celebrate the anniversary in September. Hundreds rode the Seattle Space Needle elevator on Sept. 12 with proceeds going to the Hutch. That night, the Space Needle was lit as a beacon of hope for the Hutch’s fight against cancer. On Sept. 13, hundreds attended a Hutch rally at Westlake Center and dozens of businesses displayed banners to honor the Hutch. The celebration continued with a public open house at the Hutch’s south Lake Union campus Sept. 15-16.

On Oct. 19, cancer survivor Ted Kennedy Jr. delivered the keynote address at a 25th anniversary luncheon. His father, Sen. Edward Kennedy, was the keynote speaker in 1975 to mark the opening of the Hutch’s headquarters.

“This is a very special place. It shows how a dream and imagination can create one of the world’s best cancer-research institutions,” Ted Kennedy Jr. told the audience of more than 200. “It’s a testimony to you, the community, that you were willing to make investments of this kind to help others.”

“My hope for the 50th anniversary of Fred Hutch,” said board member Pat Stanford, also a luncheon speaker, “may those who are here celebrate and remember what a challenge cancer used to be.”