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By Laura Drinan
Hometown Weekly Reporter
For the past five years, Westwood’s Alexis Argiros has been raising money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Thanks to her dedication and the efforts of the community, she has raised over $25,000. Although it’s a whopping amount to be able to donate to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Argiros is devoted to continuing to raise more money for the foundation as scientists are coming closer and closer to finding a cure.
Having hosted multiple 5Ks in recent years, Argiros decided to get even more members of the community involved by organizing the first CF West Fest at Walpole’s German American Club on April 21.
“This is my first year doing a festival,” Argiros said. “I changed it to get more sponsorships and more excitement because people like drinking more than they like running.”
She laughed, whispering the latter half of the sentence.
Argiros explained, though, that she could target a wider range of people with a social event, rather than an athletic one.
“We’ve got a band, trivia, silent auction, raffle, and hopefully it’s just really fun,” she said.
Already a half hour after CF West Fest started, Argiros had raised over $8,000 through pre-registration and at-the-door tickets. The silent auction and raffle would only add to the success of the fundraiser.
“I do all of this for zero dollars,” Argiros assured contributors. “I get all of this one hundred percent donated, so every dollar we make here goes to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.”
In addition to the venue, catering, and band donating their services, all of the silent auction and raffle items were also given for the sole purpose of fundraising.
While Argiros has gotten many involved and impassioned to help raise money for the foundation, she has personal reasons for doing so.
“I do this for a close friend with CF,” she said. “He’s here, and he’s enjoying it, and he’s very supportive of it.”
She happily reported that her friend is very healthy, but that she still wants to do as much as she can to raise awareness for Cystic Fibrosis and donate to the foundation.
“I definitely want to make it an annual event,” she said. “My hopes and expectations are to just keep it growing and raise as much money as possible.”
Friends join at CF West Fest at Walpole’s German American Club to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Photos by Laura Drinan
