ATLANTA: Several Arab-American celebrities joined forces to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee on Thursday.
The late Lebanese-American entertainer and comedian Danny Thomas founded St. Jude to help treat and research children’s catastrophic diseases, including cancer. Thomas’ vision for St. Jude was that it would treat sick children regardless of ethnicity, background or ability to pay. In addition to providing free treatment, the hospital also provides transportation, food, and accommodation to its young patients and their families.
Thomas, the star of a long-running sitcom, used his public profile to enlist support from numerous individuals throughout the Fifties and Sixties, but focused particularly on the Arab-American community, around 100 of whom established a community organization in 1957 to support the hospital and Thomas’ mission. That organization later became the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC), whic