Destination Fashion 2016
Benefits Boys & Girls Clubs of Miami-Dade
Saturday, March 5, 2016, at 6 p.m.
Bal Harbour Shops
9700 Collins Avenue, Bal Harbour
305-243-4656 (Stephanie Sayfie Aagaard)
SAagaard@Miami.edu
www.TheBuonicontiFund.com
Join NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Nick Buoniconti and his son Marc from The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis, the fundraising arm of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, along with Event Chairs, who will again host the much-anticipated Destination Fashion 2016 on Saturday, March 5, 2016. The affair will feature an interactive evening with a Live Celebrity Concert, Designer Fashion Show and Celebrity Presenters Honoring the 2016 Women of Substance & Style at Bal Harbour Shops.
To celebrate Bal Harbour Shops’ 50th anniversary and The Miami Project’s 30th anniversary, the nation’s top shopping destination and the world’s most comprehensive spinal cord injury research center have teamed up again to produce Destination Fashion 2016. This incredibly unique evening has featured concerts by Grammy Award winners Enrique Iglesias, SEAL, Donna Summer and Kool & The Gang, fashion shows by Emilio Pucci, Michael Kors, and Ralph Lauren, has been chaired by Oscar Award Winning Actor Tommy Lee Jones and polo sensation Ignacio “Nacho” Figueras and emceed by NBC News icon Tom Brokaw. One major highlight of the event is the opportunity to bid on the magnificent “Too Good to Keep Silent Auction” items donated by the Bal Harbour Shops. Partygoers will also witness the unveiling of the 2016 Women of Substance and Style honorees when they walk down the runway with their Celebrity Presenters. This event remains the only time in Bal Harbour Shops’ history when its doors are closed to host this truly one-of-a-kind, prominent, private celebrity-styled affair.
Proceeds from Destination Fashion 2016 will directly benefit The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis and the world’s most comprehensive spinal cord injury research Center and a designated Center of Excellence at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine.
For more information about Destination Fashion and to reserve sponsorships, tables and tickets, please call Stephanie Sayfie Aagaard, Director of Major Gifts, Corporate Relations, Marketing & Events, at 305-243-4656 or email SAagaard@Miami.edu or visit www.TheBuonicontiFund.com
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 spinal cord and brain injuries. 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.
This is an unbelievable time for The Buoniconti Fund and The Miami Project’s research and for medical history. In late July 2012, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave permission to The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis to begin a revolutionary Phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate the safety of transplanting human Schwann cells in patients with acute (recent) spinal cord injuries. Found mainly in the peripheral nervous system, Schwann cells are essential to sending appropriate electrical signals through the nervous system, and Miami Project scientists and supporters believe they are key to finding cures for paralysis. The Miami Project Physicians and researchers have enrolled the first participants in this Phase 1 clinical trial, part of the Christine E. Lynn Clinical Trials Initiative at The Miami Project. These first participants are doing well and the team is moving forward with the trial. In parallel to this acute study, The Miami Project has begun a human Schwann cell transplantation clinical trial in chronically injured individuals to test the safety of human Schwann cells. There are millions of people living with chronic spinal cord injury paralysis (those paralyzed for a year or more) that will benefit from this experimental procedure. Never in the history of spinal cord injury research have the prospects of finding a cure for paralysis been better.
