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PRIZE4LIFE HOSTED 3rd ANNUAL
“WORLD WITHOUT ALS” GALA
Wednesday, June 6th at The Plaza Hotel
(June
6, 2012 – NYC) Prize4Life, the nonprofit organization
dedicated to accelerating the discovery of treatments and a
cure for ALS, held its 3rd annual “World
Without ALS” Gala on Wednesday, June 6th at
The Plaza Hotel in New York City. The evening, which
featured a cocktail reception followed by dinner, a live
auction and an awards ceremony, raised over $300,000 to go
towards Prize4Life’s innovative $1 million prize fundraising
platform, which awards researchers for groundbreaking
discoveries.
Special guest speaker and auctioneer James Niven
shared his personal experience with ALS, which his father,
Aademy Award winner, David Niven, suffered from, before
hosting the live auction. Supernatural entertainer and
mentalist Lior Suchard provided entertainment for the
evening, performing a series of mystifying acts in front of
a mesmerized audience.
The accomplished Merit E. Cudkowicz, MD, MSc was
awarded with the Prize4Life Pioneer Award in Clinical
Research, and Mackenzie Dutton, an extraordinary
teenager from Andover, Mass., was honored withthe
Prize4Life Courage Awardfor her work to raise awareness
of ALS. The young leader graciously took to the stage and
spoke about how ALS had taken the lives of her father,
grandfather and aunt, and she pledged to do everything in
her power to continue the fight until a cure is found.
Her speech was warmly applauded by those including
Prize4Life founder Avi Kremer, Benny Prizan, John and Nancy
Frates, Gabi and Jennifer Hamani, Nathan Hevrony, Michael
and Dennis Neveling, Dr. Tom Maniatis, Joshua and Eva Benaim,
Dr. Robert Grant, Leonard Tow, ItzhakGartenberg, Guy Yamen,
Harriet Abramson and Robert Steven Kaplan.
About Prize4Life:
Founded by Avi Kremer, who was diagnosed with ALS at the age
of 29 during his first year at Harvard Business School,
Prize4Life is a non-profit organization dedicated to
accelerating the discovery of treatments and a cure for ALS,
also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, by using $1M prizes to
attract new minds and drive innovation.There
are roughly 30,000 ALS patients in the United States, an
estimated 600,000 globally and most people with ALS will die
within 2-5 years. To date, there is no known cure for ALS.
For more information on Prize4Life, please visit www.prize4life.org.
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