Superheroes from the Justice League of WNY will be at the Gifts of Love and Hope Christmas in July benefit Saturday from 2-6 p.m.

The Gifts of Love and Hope Christmas in July benefit is set for this Saturday, July 27 from noon to 1 a.m. at Bart’s Cove in Dunkirk, rain or shine. The benefit is set to help children with cancer of Roswell Park’s Courage of Carly Fund.

The family-friendly event will feature four superheroes from the Justice League of WNY from 2-6 p.m., handing out comic books to kids along with free face-painting.

The OBSERVER spoke to event organizer Rick Kozlowski in a recent phone interview about the event. “Basically, the event helps children with cancer and supplies them Christmas in July presents,” Kozlowski said. “There’s also a party for them up at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center, we can’t get all of them there, but we do what we can.”

The money goes directly to help those dealing with cancer, something that Kozlowski dealt with personally in the past. “We try to help out families in need as best we can,” Kozlowski goes on to mention. “We also give some money right to Courage of Carly. My father died of leukemia, and seeing that I just wanted to help out others in some way.”

There will be four bands playing throughout the day in a variety of genres. Jillian Eliza will be singing country tunes from noon to 3 p.m., the Derek Mediak Band will be playing rock ballads from 3-5:30 p.m., Osborn/Nash will be playing both country and rock from 5:30-9 p.m. and UltraViolet will be playing the ‘best of the 90s and up’ from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.

In regards to the live music, Kozlowski noted he was excited for all the bands on the docket. “I like each and every one of them, I couldn’t pick a favorite,” he commented. “I love all kinds of music.”

Food will be available from Big Melch’s Smokin’ BBQ food truck, there will be free Christmas cookies from Sweet Perfections and the Deep Eddy’s Girls will be on scene from 7-9 p.m.

Sheet ticket raffle tickets will be on sale for $5 a sheet, or five for $20 including a Bart’s drink chip and coupon for an Olympia shirt. Themed tables for the sheet ticket raffle include: the outdoors table, the kitchen table, the handyman table, the liquor table, the girls table, the boys table, the scents for her and him table, the holiday ornaments table, a number of food, retail and restaurant gift cards and many more fabulous prizes.

The turnout for donations was one for the record books, as Kozlowski goes on to note, closing out his comments. “We’re very pleased with the donation turnout, we’ve got 200+ raffle prizes,” he stated. “We really hope to see people come down and support a good cause.”

There will also be one featured raffle for a 65″ Samsung curved screen TV courtesy of Walmart. Tickets for the TV are $5 each, three for $10 or eight for $20. In addition to the sheet ticket raffles, there will be a number of free raffles and giveaways to children with a participating parent.

A 50/50 raffle will run all day, as well as silent auctions for autographed items like: guitars from Lady Antebellum and Sarah McLachlan, a full day fishing charter from Hooked Up Sportfishing, a Buffalo Sabres Rasmus Dahlin jersey, a Buffalo Bandits team jersey and a Jim Kelly football.