29th Annual Great Sports Legends Dinner
Benefitting The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis
Monday, September 29, 2014, at 5:30 p.m.
Waldorf Astoria Grand Ballroom
301 Park Avenue, New York City
305-243-4656 (Stephanie Sayfie Aagaard)
SAagaard@Miami.edu
Join NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Nick Buoniconti and his son Marc to celebrate the 29th Annual Great Sports Legends Dinner, presented by Carnival Corporation & PLC and the Carnival Foundation, taking place on Monday evening, September 29, 2014, at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. The event will benefit The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis. Over the last 28 years supporters, honorees and guests of the Great Sports Legends Dinner have raised funds and awareness for The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis’s groundbreaking research. As the fundraising arm of The Miami Project, The Buoniconti Fund hosts one of the premier sports recognition events in the nation. The highlight of this terrific evening is paying tribute to “Great Sports Legends” from different sporting categories, who inspire and motivate others to stand up for those who can’t.
The Buoniconti Fund will recognize the 2014 Sports Legends and Honorees: Hakeem Olajuwon, Warren Sapp, Pedro Martinez, Joe Sakic, Bill Cowher, Mary Lou Retton and Lauryn Williams. Professional golfer and two-time heart transplant patient Erik Compton will be presented with the 2014 “Inspiration Award,” and seven-time NBA All-Star Grant Hill and retired NFL Pro-Bowl running back Calvin Hill will both receive the 2014 “Buoniconti Fund Award.” Bill Simon, President and CEO of Walmart U.S., will be recognized with the Buoniconti Fund’s Outstanding Business Leader Award. Tom Brokaw, NBC News icon, will serve as the Master of Ceremonies for this grand event, and the dinner will also feature a performance by Smokey Robinson. The phenomenal benefit, chaired by Mark F. Dalton, offers a sensational opportunity for supporters to mix and mingle with sports greats, television and film celebrities and generous philanthropists who will enjoy fine dining, spectacular entertainment and the chance to purchase amazing items in the event’s “Buy It Now Store.”
Individual tickets for the dinner are priced at $850 or $1,500, which includes preferred seating. Tables of ten are available, priced at $8,500 and $15,000, $25,000, $50,000 and $100,000, which includes seating with a Legend. For information and reservations, contact Stephanie Sayfie Aagaard at 305-243-4656 or by email at SAagaard@Miami.edu.
About The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis
In 1985, Barth A. Green, M.D. and NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Nick Buoniconti helped found The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis after Nick’s son, Marc, sustained a spinal cord injury during a college football game. Today, The Miami Project is the world’s most comprehensive spinal cord injury (SCI) research center, and a designated Center of Excellence at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. The Miami Project’s international team is housed in the Lois Pope LIFE Center and includes more than 300 scientists, researchers, clinicians and support staff who take innovative approaches to the challenges of brain and spinal cord injury. Committed to finding a cure for paralysis resulting from spinal cord injury and to seeing millions worldwide walk again, the Buoniconti family established The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis in 1992, a non-profit organization devoted to assisting The Miami Project achieve its national and international goals.
The Miami Project’s Christine E. Lynn Clinical Trials Initiative is designed to take discoveries found to be successful in laboratory studies and fast track them to human studies. The Miami Project team currently has five FDA approved SCI clinical trials underway. Our FDA approved Schwann cell transplantation trial, the only one of its kind in the world, is changing the spinal cord injury field and sets an important foundation for future Miami Project cell replacement therapies.
Miami Project researchers are conducting or participating in more than eighteen clinical trials for spinal cord and brain injuries, and have more than a dozen clinical research studies underway. Because of our clinical and research expertise, The Miami Project is confident that we have the knowledge and resolve to initiate additional clinical trials that will help us continue to responsibly and safely take these important steps into humans. For more information visit www.TheBuonicontiFund.com
