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Barry Peterson Creates Diamond Sensation For National VIP Fundraising Event | September 02, 2015 (0 comments)
Sun Valley, ID—Jeweler Barry Peterson (left) drew a standing ovation at the 2015 Killebrew-Thompson Memorial, a high-powered national four-day golf event and auction benefiting cancer research, when the jewelry he made and donated became the highest draw of the night.
From August 19-22, a host of VIPs from senators and congressmen to professional athletes to major corporate CEOs descend on Sun Valley to raise money in memory of Danny Thompson, the Minnesota Twins’ shortstop whose 1975 batting average led the American League. That’s notable enough, but he set the record while he was battling leukemia. Thompson always wanted to be known as a ballplayer, not a cancer patient—or even as a ballplayer with cancer. So when Thompson died in 1976 at age 29, fellow Twin and record-setting power-hitter Harmon Killebrew donated $6,000 to leukemia research in memory of his teammate, but he wanted to do something more.
Some years later, after Killebrew had retired from baseball and gone into business with former Idaho congressman Ralph Harding, the fundraising tournament was born. Harding used his contacts to bring one of the nation’s most famous amateur golfers to play for a good cause: former president Gerald Ford. From there, things took off and the tournament became one of the country’s most high-powered philanthropic events.
Killebrew himself died of esophageal cancer in 2011 at age 74, but the tournament lives on, and now boasts a major auction and benefit concert each year. This year’s auction raised close to $1 million, and the Saturday-night benefit concert that has become a regular part of the event featured singer Kenny Loggins.
Jeweler Barry Peterson has been an integral part of the auction for the last 10 years, contributing both his own pieces and helping to secure timepieces from luxury watch brands such as Rolex, Breitling, and Piaget.
“I don’t carry many watches now but we used to,” he says.
But even without major brands, Peterson’s contribution was significant: he created two sets of 18k white gold E/F diamond bangles this year, one with a total of 9.5 carats and the other with a total of 10 carats. The two sets together raised $102,000—the highest of any single auction lot. One set is shown here:
“A lot of what we do [philanthropically] is local, but this is national,” Peterson told The Centurion. “Cancer is national.” And for Peterson, cancer is personal: his younger brother, Brian, died of melanoma eight years ago, just before he would have turned 56.
“Having a close family member die of cancer has made it even more personal,” says Peterson. He has golfed in the tournament as well as contributed auction items, though this year he was too busy to take part in the game. His former golf partner was renowned comedian Arte Shaw, who no longer participates due to age in combination with the high altitude of Sun Valley.
Barry Peterson's storefront.