SMASH BASH
A rum cocktail is the inspiration for a potent fund-raiser.

Big ideas don’t normally spring from tropical cocktails, but the Goombay Bash held on Saturday night was born when the event’s founder, John Rot, sipped a Goombay Smash on vacation in the Bahamas. Twelve years later, the annual Caribbean-style party attracts more than 1,000 people who don floral shirts and flip-flops and enjoy gallons of the rum-based elixir all in the name of charity. A vacation-themed silent auction — which included a seven-day stay at a Mexican mansion — helped bring the night’s tally to more than $500,000 for the H Foundation, which benefits the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University.