Rotarians and their family and friends are welcome to attend the second annual RPH Memorial Foundation fall fundraiser, which has been scheduled for 5-9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25, at Le Lieu, 2920 West Jefferson Ave.

The RPH Memorial Foundation was set up in honor of Joe and Mary Hoshaw’s son Ryan, who died in October 2024 after a seven-year-long struggle with a rare genetic form of colon cancer. The foundation evolved out of a desire to find a way to keep Ryan’s family and friends connected and honor Ryan’s life by coming together to support causes he felt were important.

Tickets to the event are $50 and include a dinner of pizza, wings and salad, a starter pack of 10 raffle tickets and a 2026 RPH Memorial Foundation bracelet. Tickets will be available at the door or can be purchased in advance via this Venmo link.

Those of you who were at last year’s gathering remember that it was held at RiverTown Tavern.

“That worked out very well, and the staff at RiverTown was awesome to work with, but we felt like we needed a little bit more of our own dedicated space to be able to conduct the raffles more efficiently and be able to do the prize drawings on-site before the end of the evening,” Joe said. “Le Lieu seemed like the perfect next step for us. We aren’t abandoning RiverTown though. We won’t be serving alcohol at Le Lieu but since both RiverTown and Le Lieu are in downtown Trenton’s Social District, you can buy drinks at RiverTown in an outdoor-carry cup and bring them over to Le Lieu. I think many of our guests will end up at RiverTown afterwards also.”

Like last year, there will be a wide array of great prizes to award in the raffle. There will be numerous gift baskets, gift cards, more of Ryan’s nature photos, and other items. There will also be a 50-50 raffle this year. Anyone else interested in donating gift baskets or gift cards can email or call Joe. (joehoshaw@comcast.net -- 734-558-6955)

A copy of the event flier is below. There also will be some available at Monday’s meeting.

The RPH Memorial Foundation also is pleased to announce that it just recently provided a total of $4,500 in donations to three different charitable entities with proceeds from last year’s event. The largest donation, $3,000, was awarded to Rogel Patient & Family Support Services at Michigan Medicine (University of Michigan Hospital), and $1,000 to Paws4Patients at U of M as well. The very first donation made with foundation funds was $500 to The Terry Fox Foundation, which is dedicated to supporting cancer research. These are organizations and causes that had significant meaning to Ryan. More details will be forthcoming on those donations.