Alec Baldwin Hosts 2015 Long Island Hospitality Ball

Amagansett actor and philanthropist Alec Baldwin will host the Long Island Hospitality Ball tonight, June 1 at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury.

Baldwin, who will be joined at the event by his brother and fellow leading man Billy Baldwin, joins the benefit to aid in the fight against breast cancer—the disease that nearly took their mother Carol Baldwin‘s life. This year’s gala will benefit her charity, the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund, which was created by its namesake in 1996 after she had a double mastectomy to save her life.

Grateful for her survival, Carol Baldwin worked with family, friends and health professionals to establish her fund to fight and ultimately defeat breast cancer. The Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund supports both new and established researchers in the field, helping them afford what’s necessary to learn more about the disease. To date, the fund has awarded 72 research grants totaling in excess of $4 million to medical research. “Our mission is to find a cure—nothing less,” the fund organizers explain.

The Long Island Hospitality Ball was created by hospitality industry mainstay and thyroid cancer survivor Keith Hart as a charity fundraiser showcasing offerings from the region’s top local restaurants, wine and spirit brands, nightclubs, entertainers, hotels and catering halls. Last year’s gala, in 2014, was attended by a sold out crowd of 2,700 and grossed a little more than $360,000.

Now in its fifth year, the Long Island Hospitality Ball has raised more than $1.1 million for various cancer charities.

The Baldwins, who grew up near Woodbury in Nassau County’s Massapequa, lost their father Alexander Baldwin to lung cancer in 1983. Their mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1990 and battled it for six years before getting her lifesaving surgery.

Tonight’s gala will also benefit Spirits Up, a foundation that funds cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

The Long Island Hospitality Ball is SOLD OUT. Festivities begin tonight, June 1, at 7 p.m. at the Crest Hollow Country Club (8325 Jericho Turnpike) in Woodbury. For more info, visit longislandhospitalityball.org.