Moonlit Gala spotlights Florida Hospital Flagler Foundation's commitment to bettering the community

The 9th-annual fundraiser was held on Sunday, Feb. 25, at The Club at Hammock Beach.

  • By Paige Wilson
  • | 11:06 a.m. February 26, 2018
  • Palm Coast Observer
  • Neighbors
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As Alan Messer shared the story of his wife Audrey Messer’s life-changing 14-and-a-half-foot fall onto a concrete slab, the crowd of about 300 guests at Florida Hospital Flagler Foundation’s Moonlit Gala became silent.

Audrey Messer had traumatic brain injury, broke her back in three places, and broke her jaw, teeth, elbow and several other parts of her body.

“It’s an awfully scary moment,” Alan Messer said. “I cradled her in my lap until the time that they took her away from me. And at that point, as they loaded her into the helicopter, she had no vital signs. She had no vital signs for three minutes. When I drove down to the hospital in Daytona, I didn’t know if I was going to find my wife or body parts.”

While he said the trauma center in Daytona Beach did a lot of the “heavy lifting” for the first several weeks of surgeries and treatment for Audrey, a team of doctors at Florida Hospital Flagler have gotten her to where she is now, standing on stage in a glamourous blue dress next to him.

Alan said that when Audrey was released from the hospital in Daytona Beach, she had limited mobility, was in a wheelchair and probably weighed about 85 pounds.

“There were a lot of people that came through to help her,” he said. “(FHF) is a community hospital, and it took the community to make her well.”

As two of the many Flagler 20/20 Society members, the Messers have committed to provide an ongoing annual gift of $1,000 to the Florida Hospital Flagler Foundation.

The ninth-annual Moonlit Gala on Sunday, Feb. 25, celebrated the work that FHF physicians, Flagler 20/20 Society members and other FHF Foundation sponsors, including gold level sponsors Sue and Peter Freytag, do to take care of the community through the FHF Foundation.

“It’s great that people come in to support our foundation, which in line supports the hospital, all providing funds for better quality health care in our community,” Executive Director/Chief Development Officer John Subers said.

Subers’ wife Margaret Subers, the 2018 Moonlit Gala chairwoman, welcomed guests at The Club at Hammock Beach for an evening of dining, speeches and humorous entertainment by guest speaker Jeanne Robertson.

Margaret quoted a Bible verse from Proverbs: “A cheerful heart is good medicine.”

Among the guests were Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly, Flagler County Commissioners Donald O’Brien and Greg Hansen, County Administrator Craig Coffey, Palm Coast Mayor Milissa Holland, Flagler Beach City Manager Larry Newsom, Executive Director of the Education Foundation Joe Rizzo, Flagler Schools Superintendent James Tager, Flagler Schools Executive Director of Leadership Development Earl Johnson and Flagler Schools Chief Financial Officer Tom Tant.

“It’s a wonderful thing when you see a big group of people come together and give up their time and resources for a cause,” FHF CEO Dr. Ron Jimenez said.

John Subers said the estimated total raised at the gala is about $118,000.

The next FHF Foundation Moonlit Gala will be on Feb. 24, 2019.

 

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