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Emmy
Award-Winning Actor and Singer Wayne Brady
to Host Inaugural San Francisco
Red Star
Gala
Benefiting American Friends of Magen David Adom
Honoring Prominent Local Activists Maurice Kanbar and Lior
Tamir
Emmy award-winning actor and singer Wayne Brady (CBS’s
“Let’s Make a Deal”) will host the inaugural San
Francisco Red Star Gala benefiting American
Friends of Magen David Adom (AFMDA) at
the Hilton San
Francisco Union Square on Sunday,
August 30, 2015. The success of AFMDA’s inaugural Red
Star Ball in 2013 in Los Angeles inspired the organization
to host similar galas across the country, now including the
Bay Area. The inaugural event will honor Magen David Adom’s
(MDA) medics and prominent local activists Maurice Kanbar
and Dr. Lior Tamir, while raising funds to help MDA build
Israel’s new – and only – national blood center. Proceeds
will also go toward MDA medical equipment, ambulances, and
training.
“MDA is one of Israel’s most critical
organizations, and its largest and most important
humanitarian agency, so we’re very appreciative of the
goodwill and generosity of our friends in the Bay Area,”
said Erik Levis, AFMDA Western Region director. “We are
looking forward to bringing our Bay Area supporters
together, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to have such a
dynamic host and outstanding honorees for our inaugural San
Francisco gala.”
AFMDA is rapidly increasing awareness and
raising funds to support MDA’s tireless efforts in Israel
and around the world. As Israel’s national emergency
medical response organization, MDA provides ambulances,
paramedics, blood bank services, and disaster relief to
Israel’s eight million residents, and all without Israeli
government funding. MDA is also Israel’s affiliate to the
International Movement of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies, offering mass casualty response during times of
crisis around the world, most recently in Nepal, where MDA
was among the first international aid agencies on the ground
after that country’s devastating earthquakes.
At the 2015 San
Francisco Red Star Gala philanthropist, film producer,
entrepreneur, and inventor Maurice Kanbar will be honored
with the AFMDA Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to
his many professional successes, most notably creating SKYY
vodka, Kanbar is distinguished for his continuous
generosity. Kanbar
is a long-time MDA supporter, and a man of philanthropic
vision, whose diverse interests have lead him to aid an
array of meaningful causes and organizations, with MDA being
counted among his favorites. He
has endowed the Kanbar Hall at the Jewish Community Center
in San Francisco, the Exploratorium’s Kanbar Forum, the
Kanbar Cardiac Unit at California Pacific Medical Center in
San Francisco, the Kanbar Campus Center at Philadelphia
University, the Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film and
Television at New York University and the Maurice Kanbar
Center for Biomedical Engineering among many other projects
around the country. His
legacy of generosity to the Bay Area and beyond make him an
ideal Lifetime Achievement Award honoree.
The 2015 AFMDA
Next Generation Award will be presented to Dr. Lior Tamir,
an Israeli-American entrepreneur and visionary in the
marketing technology industry. Tamir
is the chair of AFMDA's young leadership initiative in the
Bay Area, Heartbeat, and has spearheaded engaging innovative
events to raise funds and awareness for Magen David Adom
among young business leaders, locally and throughout the
country. Dr.
Lior has had a great passion for Israel and has actively
helped several organizations launch their presence in the
Bay Area, including FIDF-YL and Mitzvah on the Rocks.
MDA’s proposed new
national blood center, a secure underground facility, will protect
Israel’s entire blood supply from terrorist threats, such as
rocket and chemical attacks, as well as natural disasters,
while continuing to provide 97 percent of Israel’s civilian
blood and 100 percent of all the blood for the Israeli
Defense Forces. The current blood center, built above
ground in the 1980s, is vulnerable to terror attacks and can
also no longer accommodate the needs of Israel’s growing
population of eight million people.
The Red Star Gala will take place at the
Hilton San Francisco Union Square at 333 O’Farrell Street
from 5:30 to 9 p.m. The evening will consist of a cocktail
reception, sit-down dinner and program. Individual tickets
are available for $360, and Young Leadership tickets are
available for $180. For more
information and to purchase tickets, please visit
www.afmda.org/SF-Gala
About American
Friends of Magen David Adom (AFMDA)
Magen
David Adom is
Israel’s national ambulance, blood-services, and
disaster-relief organization, serving as emergency medical
first responders for the state’s more than 8 million people.
MDA is also Israel’s representative in the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. MDA is
the only organization mandated by the Israeli government to
serve in this role, but it’s not a government agency, so it
relies on funding
from donors around the world. AFMDA is MDA’s U.S.-based
fundraising affiliate, raising more than 80 percent of the
charitable dollars MDA receives annually.
www.afmda.org
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