26th annual Race to Erase MS gala to honor actress Selma Blair
Race to Erase MS has announced that its 26th Annual Gala will take place on Friday, May 10, 2019 at The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. The gala will honor actress Selma Blair for her "bravery and strength demonstrated during her personal battle with MS". The gala will also honor theHausman Family Foundation, for its support of Race to Erase MS.
Grammy-nominated R&B/Soul artist Aloe Blacc and platinum-selling international music star Flo Rida will perform. David Foster will serve as the evening’s musical producer. The event will also boast a Spring/Summer 2019 runway show from Hollywood fashion brand alice + olivia by Stacey Bendet with many celebrities modeling in the show. The celebrity-filled gala has raised over $48 million to date for Race to Erase MS and its Center Without Walls program. This year marks the 26th Annual Gala, where guests will participate in a silent auction before enjoying a gala dinner featuring live musical performances.
“We are so thrilled to be celebrating 26 years of progress at our annual gala and could not think of more deserving honorees to highlight this year. Selma Blair has been a remarkable advocate in the community who so admirably uses her platform to help spread awareness about this life-altering disease every day. We are also incredibly grateful to the Hausman Family Foundation and Richard P. Hausman for his lifelong dedication and support to finding a cure for multiple sclerosis,” said Race to Erase MS founder Nancy Davis. “We are so lucky to have Aloe Blacc bringing his talents to the stage and we know Flo Rida will bring the house down once again!”
Race to Erase MS was founded in 1993 by Nancy Davis and is dedicated to the treatment and ultimate cure of Multiple Sclerosis. All funds raised by the organization, through its iconic galas and year-round initiatives, support the “Center Without Walls” program, a unique collaboration of the world’s leading MS research scientists currently representing Harvard, Yale, Cedars Sinai, University of Southern California, Oregon Health Science University, UC San Francisco, Johns Hopkins and UCLA.
Davis also created the annual “Orange You Happy to Erase MS” campaign, which takes place for the entire month of May (MS Awareness Month) and adds yet another branch of fundraising for MS research. Throughout the month, a variety of orange products, many of which are specially created for this initiative, are sold to benefit the cause and elevate public awareness about MS.
Orange T-shirts with symbolic messaging are created annually and in recent years, modeled by longtime supporter Sharon Osbourne. For the 2019 campaign, they will be joined by Jack Osbourne, an MS survivor himself. Among the partners is ALEX AND ANI, a company that has been a loyal partner to Race to Erase MS since 2012. They created a unique Cupcake Charm Bangle and donated twenty percent of its proceeds to Race to Erase MS. This effort alone has raised over $1 million for multiple sclerosis research.