On February 2, 2009, donors and friends of UCLA Neurosurgery attended Repair – Enhance – Protect – Your Brain & Your Spine at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. The Wall of Honor was unveiled. Dr. Neil Martin, chair of the Department of Neurosurgery, provided an update on the newly established department, and a lively reception highlighted “brain food.” Having its debut was the Wall of Laughter, a series of color-enhanced portraits of members of the Saturday Night Live cast taken by photographer Edie Baskin Bronson to be installed on the sixth floor, and the Rodney Dangerfield Operating Room was dedicated, with special guest Joan Dangerfield, widow of the late comedian.
The Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation’s annual Taste for a Cure was held May 1, 2009, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, with Gary Newman and Dana Walden, chairmen of 20th Century Fox Television, honored with the Gil Nickel Humanitarian Award. Proceeds of the event benefit the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. For more information about Taste for a Cure, visit www.tasteforacure.com.
The 16th Annual Entertainment Industry Foundation Revlon Run/Walk for Women Los Angeles was held May 9, 2009. This 5K event is the city’s largest fundraiser for women’s cancers, and the Revlon/ UCLA Women’s Cancer Research Program at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center is its leading beneficiary.
The UCLA Department of Neurosurgery will present its 2009 Visionary Ball at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on October 1, 2009. With the 2007 biennial ball having raised more than $1 million to benefit research and education at UCLA, this year’s event promises to be every bit as successful. Former L.A. Dodgers baseball great Steve Garvey will again preside over the evening as master of ceremonies, and Visionary Awards will be presented to honorees who are leaders in business, philanthropy, science and medicine. Joan Dangerfield, widow of comedian Rodney Dangerfield, will present the “Rodney Respect Award” to a prominent entertainer; previously, the award has gone to Jay Leno and Tim Allen.
The 10th Annual Mattel Party on the Pier, scheduled for October 18, 2009, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier, will commemorate 10 years of an outstanding partnership between UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital and Mattel, Inc. The park’s carnival games are specially re-stocked by Mattel volunteers with Mattel and Fisher-Price toys. Attendees enjoy unlimited access to rides, a silent auction and celebrity appearances. The event underwrites the vital work of Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA, as well as supports physicians, programs and research within the UCLA Department of Pediatrics. For more information, visit www.partyonthepier.ucla.edu.
