A Magical Night In Minneapolis Reveals the Genius of Society's '1 Percenters'

An enduring theme of this column is that society's economic advances are powered by the ‘vital few,' or the 1 percenters so obnoxiously demonized by the many class warriors in our midst. Taking nothing away from small businesses, the middle class, or the striving poor working intensely hard to rise up the income ladder, the simple truth is that the top 1 percent are the enterprising individuals who power the economy forward.

No doubt readers are familiar with this narrative. Whether it was Henry Ford making cars a ubiquitous middle class good, John D. Rockefeller refining the oil that powered the cars, or Michael Dell, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos bringing computers and their myriad life-enhancing ways to the masses, it's the rich who, by virtue of being wealthy, remove unease from our lives by turning the expensive and often unknown into that which is inexpensive and rather commonplace.

Last Saturday night the genius of the vital few 1 percenters was made very apparent in Minneapolis. At the ‘Dawn of a Dream' benefit for the Children's Cancer Research Fund (CCRF), co-chairs Angie and Cari Erickson (editor's note: Cari is a long-time friend who runs Forbes Opinions with me) alongside a very energetic Host Committee put on a magical evening that raised over $1.5 million (a record) to fund the research that will hopefully place the horrors of children's cancer in the rearview mirror. Having worked tirelessly over the past year to stage Dawn of a Dream, the sterling reputations of the hosts meant that the top investment bankers, entrepreneurs, business executives, and yes, heirs to some of the Twin Cities' most famous fortunes, were all in attendance - checkbooks open.

Some of the funds received were generated through a live auction made possible by the generosity of individuals and businesses in the Minneapolis area. Items donated for purchase included African safaris, a dinner to be crafted by James Beard Award winning Café Boulud chef Gavin Kaysen (a Minneapolis native), and a trip for four to the upcoming Cayman Islands Cookout, which will be hosted by chef Eric Ripert.

But far from an event defined solely by networking and the auction of luxury items, Dawn of a Dream was a very serious evening made emotional by video tributes to those who tragically died of cancer too quickly, and also speeches from the family members of those who know all too well the loss that results from modern medicine remaining unequal to this health scourge. There was a brilliant tribute to Dr. John Ohlfest who, before losing his battle with melanoma last January, had dedicated his professional life to finding a cure for the disease that ultimately took him from his wife and two children at the age of 35.

And then there was a very moving video tribute to Zach Sobiech. Diagnosed with osteosarcoma at the age of 14, Sobiech made it plain to all who knew him that he wanted to be "remembered as a kid who went down fighting, and didn't really lose." Sobiech died last May, but before then wrote the hit song "Clouds." The accompanying video for Clouds became a global YouTube sensation that brought the importance of finding a cure for cancer into the homes of millions. Sobiech's parents were in attendance on Saturday, and it's fair to say that there wasn't a dry eye in the house when they reached the podium to speak about their son.

The stories of Ohlfest and Sobiech merit prominent mention on their own, but they particularly do in light of what happened after their stories were told. Indeed, with the luxury items having already been purchased, what took place next capped off a truly beautiful evening. Indeed, the auctioneer alerted the attendees to the next goal of raising another $500,000 to further bolster the essential doings of the CCRF.

Despite the fact that they'd already opened their checkbooks in impressive amounts, the attendees didn't stop there. Encouraged by two six figure donations, the already generous attendees contributed another $400,000 on the way to a record total take for the night of $1,552, 439.

About the enormous sums raised, it's not a reach to say that some will understandably criticize any politicization by this writer of an event that was happily free of partisanship. If so, the criticism is duly noted, and will hopefully reflect on me, as opposed to the very charitable individuals in attendance.

Still, just as the 1 percent are the authors of our economic advancement, it's also true as last Saturday reveals that they're the vital few when it comes to providing the fruits of their enterprise to the organizations that will hopefully in time render diseases like cancer an afterthought. This possibility can't be stressed enough.

When class warriors strive to tax the earnings, investment gains, and estates of the rich, what they're really doing is relieving those with the most to give of funds that would otherwise be handed over to organizations like the CCRF, not to mention investments in science meant to cure that which kills. Considering the federalization of healthcare more broadly, we must ask ourselves in light of the massive amount of work that led to last Saturday's very successful fundraiser if all the rules and regulations aren't similarly serving as costly barriers to the ability of our best minds to innovate in life-saving ways over wasting lots of time and money pleasing bureaucrats.

Whatever one's policy views, what must be acknowledged is that the rich whom some thoughtlessly demonize do more than enhance our lives by turning the obscure into the ubiquitous. They are also using their wealth to eradicate that which robs families of loved ones way too early, as last Saturday's magical evening in Minneapolis clearly attests.