Lime Foundation Gala Features Astronaut Kellie Gerardi as Keynote Speaker

The 10th Annual Believe in the Dream Legacy Gala will take place on September 11, 2025, and feature Kellie Gerardi, a multi-mission research astronaut and 90th woman to fly to space

The Lime Foundation’s 10th Annual Believe in the Dream Legacy Gala will take place on September 11, 2025, and feature Kellie Gerardi as the keynote speaker, a multi-mission research astronaut and 90th woman to fly to space.

Per the Foundation’s website:

Ladies and gentlemen, the event of the decade is here! Join us for the 10th Annual Believe in the Dream Legacy Gala on September 11, 2025, from 6 PM to 9 PM at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa, California.

Buy tickets now or secure sponsorship at www.believelime.com!

This is a momentous occasion—we’re celebrating 10 years of impact, transformation, and growth. It’s a time to honor the legacy we’ve built and the future we continue to shape. The evening will celebrate the incredible accomplishments of our NextGen Graduates, who represent the bright future ahead, and we’ll honor our Shining Star Award recipient.

But that’s just the beginning! We’ve got a celebrity guest joining us to inspire and raise funds for our programs. The night will be filled with incredible performances and a legendary afterparty you won’t want to miss.

Want to keep the celebration going? Indulge in a luxurious one-night stay at Vintners Resort and join us for an exclusive VIP breakfast the next morning. It’s the perfect way to continue building connections and celebrating change.

Explore all the sponsorship opportunities at www.believelime.com and be part of this historic milestone.

This isn’t just an event. It’s a celebration of legacy, and YOU are invited to be part of it! Don’t miss your chance to be a part of something truly unforgettable.

Meet Our Keynote speaker KELLIE GERARDI

Kellie Gerardi is a multi-mission research astronaut who became the 90th woman in history to fly to space and one of the world’s first payload specialists to fly on a commercial spacecraft. As a mother, researcher, author, and daily source of inspiration to millions of followers on social media, USA Today calls her “a woman of many successful missions” and named her one of their 2025 Women of the Year.

Kellie served as a payload specialist on the IIAS-01 / Galactic 05 science mission with Virgin Galactic in 2023, during which she conducted biomedical and thermodynamic fluid research in space on behalf of the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences, where she serves as the Director of Human Spaceflight and a microgravity instructor and Test Flight Director. Kellie will lead the IIAS-02 research mission in 2026, and her second spaceflight will advance the scientific knowledge gained from IIAS-01 and introduce novel biomedical research alongside her international IIAS crewmates. Here on Earth, Kellie has tested and matured technologies across more than 150 parabolas in microgravity research flight campaigns, including with MIT, the National Research Council of Canada, and the Canadian Space Agency.

Kellie has been profiled in publications ranging from Glamour to Forbes and has appeared on shows including The Jennifer Hudson Show, The Talk, and CBS Mornings. Her children’s book series Luna Muna has been read from both the International Space Station and the White House. Known online for embracing her multitudes and praised for her refreshing transparency documenting personal struggles through IVF and pregnancy loss, Kellie paints a powerful portrait of modern motherhood and is the recipient of a 2025 “People’s Voice” Webby Award. Kellie lives in Jupiter, Florida with her husband and their daughter Delta V.

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LETITIA HANKE - THE LIME FOUNDATION FOUNDER, BUSINESS OWNER & MOTHER

I’m a small-town girl from Hidden Valley Lake in Lake County. After years of being bullied in school, I found music as a path to boosting my self-esteem. I started learning the trumpet at 7 and was playing with the middle school band by age 8. By the time I was 10, while still in middle school, I was performing with the high school marching band. At 12 I taught myself to play piano and sing, and I’ve loved performing ever since. Music not only kept me out of trouble, it helped me excel in academics too. I was able to skip the 11th grade and graduate a year early.

Dreaming of a career in music, I enrolled at Sonoma State University. However, as a starving student working for tips as a guest singer, I saw the need for a “real job” that would provide a reliable income. That’s how I found myself in the roofing industry. (That, however, is a whole other story. If you’re curious about it, you are cordially invited to visit my company’s website, where it’s all explained.)

That’s the background to my passion for supporting musical education, the performing arts and education in general. If the LIME Foundation can help a school help a child excel in learning or in exploring music, I think we’re making our community a better place. That’s the thinking behind one of our LIME Foundation programs, the Turner Arts Initiative (Turner is my maiden name, so you can tell I’m passionate about this program).

This program helps children – especially kids who have been bullied – to learn and explore music in an educational setting either in or after school. My hope is to create a positive, optimistic and encouraging atmosphere for these kids.

And that’s why, even before the LIME Foundation got on its feet, my company, ARS Roofing, began donating 1% of every reroofing and gutter replacement to the school or college of our client’s choice. We started this program to help ease the burden our schools face in an era of budget cuts. Our donations help schools maintain music and performing arts programs. Today however, we make our contributions differently – and even more powerfully. Today, ARS Roofing donates up to 5% of the earnings from each job to The LIME Foundation, which focuses its resources and energy on three areas: education (especially music education), vocational training in the construction trades, and assistance to seniors.

More about these two other areas of focus by The LIME Foundation: We support a vocational training/construction apprenticeship program (the NextGen Trades Academy) and provide free construction services to low-income families and the elderly. This creates a double benefit for the community. It helps prepare people in disadvantaged communities for fulfilling careers while at the same time providing important services to people who otherwise couldn’t afford them.

Finally, the LIME Foundation also runs programs for the elderly in an effort to address America’s obesity epidemic through light exercise and healthy eating. Heart disease, diabetes and obesity run in my family, and I’m really anxious to break the chain and do something about it with this program.