2026 PATRIOT AWARDS GALA
5-9PM SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 12, 2026
** TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW **
City of Angels will present our Patriot Awards Gala – America 250 on Saturday, September 12, 2026 at 5:00pm at Mercer Oaks Golf Course. Join us for an unforgettable evening as we celebrate America’s 250th anniversary. Mercer Oaks is a wonderful venue, but space is limited—tickets will go quickly. If you attended our 2025 Gala, we hope you’ll return for another memorable night filled with the same spirit, camaraderie, and fun…plus a few exciting new additions.
This year we’re introducing a Tricky Tray—sure to be a highlight of the evening. Bring a friend and make it a night to remember!
While this is a dress-to-impress affair, we encourage you to bring your sense of adventure (and maybe your lucky pitching wedge, best cornhole toss, or favorite cigar cutter). This isn’t your father’s gala anymore! To mark America 250, dinner will be a plated, sit-down meal with assigned seating. Entrée options include:
• Beef – Beef Tenderloin
• Chicken – Chicken Parmigiana
• Fish – Broiled Salmon
• Vegetarian – Eggplant Rollatini
• Vegan – Vegetable Stir Fry over Rice
Unable to attend? Consider donating a reservation to a veteran through our “Donate a Reservation” option. Simply click the Donation icon below. We are also welcoming some special patriots for this milestone celebration—stay tuned for updates! City of Angels is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Please review our sponsorship opportunities and Program Ad Book below. We look forward to celebrating with you!
Please purchase your dinner reservation below by entree.
PATRIOT AWARDS RESERVATIONS CLICK ICON
CLICK HERE FOR TICKET FORM PDF
FOR PATRIOT AWARDS SPONSORSHIPS AND PROGRAM BOOK CLICK AN ICON
CLICK HERE FOR SPONSOR FORM PDF
PATRIOT AWARDS DONATIONS CLICK ICON
FR. DANIEL CAHILL
Invocation
CITY OF ANGELS 2026 PATRIOT AWARDS
Presented each year to members of our community who give immense amount of time,
generous contributions and sincere unrequitable volunteerism.
Providing selfless service without the expectation of anything but help for others.
Asm. Anthony Verrelli
Recovery Advocate Award
Frederick B. Dumont
Community Impact Award
ASAC (ret.) Christopher Jakim -DEA
Humanitarian Impact Award
Dawn & Michael Sabo
Volunteer of the Year Award
SGT(Ret.) Alfred Brenner IV -USMC
Veteran Advocacy Award
2026 PATRIOT AWARDS SPONSORS
At any Gala ticket sales do not generate all the funds necessary for a non-profit to operate, as the real fundraising comes from our loyal sponsors. Unimaginable in today’s economy, we even lowered our Gala ticket price from $125 in 2023 to $100 for 2026. So if you become a sponsor now, you will help the City of Angels help others! Patriot Awards sponsor opportunities are varied from a $100 patron to our $5000 Gala Event Sponsor. All ads must be in PDF format and sent to jbencivengo@cityofangelsnj.org by September 1. We even provide an opportunity for you to donate any amount of your choosing with our Patriot Awards Challenge located through the Donations icon at the bottom of this page. Below is your link to be a sponsor.
FOR PATRIOT AWARDS SPONSORSHIPS AND PROGRAM BOOK CLICK AN ICON
CLICK HERE FOR SPONSOR FORM PDF
GALA FUN
Hole-in-One Challenge / Corn Hole Challenge / Cigar Tent
RAISING FUNDS FOR A GOOD CAUSE
Special Event…yes, you are seeing a hole-in-one contest!
Our Hole-in-One Contest is returning in 2026. While enjoying refreshments and cigars on the portico, attendees try their hand at a Hole-in-One contest. Yes, they put down their glass and picked up their sand wedge as they hit from the portico to the 9th green. You do not have to be a golf pro or even a scratch golfer to help raise money for our veterans therapies as they try to win the contest while supporting a worthy cause!
Corn Hole Challenge returning for 2026!
To increase the fun we are adding a Corn Hole Challenge. Whether a corn hole pro or never tossed a bean bag, everyone will have an opportunity at the toss. Help COA raise funds and win smart tv in the process! How is your aim?
Cigar Tent…top quality complimentary cigars!
Sometimes you are at the best event, but you just feel like something is missing? Not at the Patriot Awards Gala! After enjoying a whole bunch of great food, relax on the portico in a lounge chair surrounded by the best of friends and add your favorite refreshment with a complimentary quality cigar. Now, take in a great evening…because, it doesn’t get any better then this!
WHY DOES CITY OF ANGELS FUNDRAISE ?
City of Angels NJ, Inc. was formed when Maryann and Kevin Meara, after losing their son KC to a heroin overdose on June 30, 2008, answered the pleas for help from KC’s friends and their families. COA was incorporated in 2009 as a 501(c)3 non-profit and has never charged for their family services. They quickly learned that you need funding to survive as a non-profit, so there were tee shirt and hoodie sales. Then came the monetary requests from kids who became addicted and the requests were for everything from sober living, to cell phones to food. That’s when they learned that “mom and pop” non-profits are pretty much on their own as they are generally overlooked for government funding. Over our sixteen years City of Angels, like most small non-profits, has existed without federal, state or county funding. Even when government funding is released in the form of American Rescue Plan and Opioid Settlement Funding, which is directed towards services these non-profits provide, it generally goes back to government programs or large large well-funded agencies! We have a saying in our “mom-and-pop” organization community…”broken, but not defeated” and so COA will continue to petition government officials to direct their funding to where it is most needed and does the most good. Though we were overlooked for county ARP funding, the State of NJ will receive $1billion in Opioid Settlements over the next eighteen years and it is our hope that COA, in addition to our fellow non-profits formed by parents who lost kids to this epidemic, share in that funding! COA is committed to serving our community and that is why we have fundraisers! Please donate…
TO DONATE CLICK ON THE ICON BELOW
The Fr. Vincent R. Capodanno Veterans Research Therapeutics is for veterans…
One mission of the Patriot Awards Gala is to raise funds for COA’s newly introduced Fr. Vincent R. Capodanno Veteran’s Research Therapeutics. Therapeutics are a key influencer for your well-being. Through brain and wellness therapeutics COA will drive advances in and access to research and integrative/functional therapies to address the ravages that mental health and substance use disorders has had on our veterans. Keeping with the service and sacrifice of Fr. Capodanno no veteran is denied access due to status, religion or race.
Born of our Warrior Down -No Vet Left Behind program, no veteran will ever receive a bill from Fr. Vincent’s. COA believes that therapeutics, through initiatives like integrative therapies is the missing link to addressing mental health and substance use disorders. When COA started in 2008, relapse was inconvenient, but now relapse is deadly. So it’s not rocket science that if recovery can be extended, relapse can be prevented. All this, with a concentration on neurogenesis, as we hope to heal the brain. We are hoping to create this environment through a comprehensive wellness center.
If you have any questions you can email kevinmeara@cityofangelsnj.org
Click Here to Access the Orange Team Planning Page (Team Members Only)