Charity Spotlight: City Year Benefit, DKMS Gala, 500 Miles For Parkinson’s

On Friday, May 6, Harry McMurtry began a 500 mile walk from New York City to his hometown, Toronto, to raise money for Parkinson’s research. What makes this story so incredible is Mr. McMurtry, son of former Ontario attorney-general Roy McMurtry and father of three has been living with Parkinson’s for the past 11 years. Not wanting to give into the disease, he decided to fight against the disease with everything he has.  Accompanying Harry on the walk will be Sue Thompson of Toronto and Dr. Ross Sugar of Baltimore, MD both of whom suffer from the daily limitations of Parkinson’s. Walking up to 15 miles a day for 45 days is a tremendous challenge.  The walk will be bookended by two other events – a launch event in New York City and a wrap event in Toronto.  The walk is intended to bridge two great cities and two great countries in an effort to fight – and bring awareness to – a common foe, namely, Parkinson’s disease. Funds from the Walk will go to the Michael J Fox Parkinson’s Foundation – Fox, a fellow Canadian and supporter of Harry and of this event. Fore more information, visit here: http://fivehundredmiles.org

On Thursday, May 5, Delete Blood Cancer DKMS co-founder Katharina Harf hosted the Tenth Annual DKMS Gala at Cipriani Wall Street, which raised more than $4.6 million to help fund the registration of lifesaving bone marrow donors across the country. With these funds, DKMS can register more than 71,000 potential bone marrow donors. This year, DKMS honored philanthropists Angelina and Monte Lipman (Chairman and CEO of Republic Records) and Daniele and Alexandre Behring (Co-founder and Managing Partner of 3G Capital) for their outstanding generosity and commitment to delete blood cancer. The signature highlight of the evening came during a miracle moment when Broadway performer Chondra Profit was reunited with the young boy who received her bone marrow donation. Music superstar Ariana Grande brought the room to their feet to close out the night with an uplifting performance of her chart-topping hits “One Less Problem,” “Love Me Harder,” “Dangerous Woman” and “One Last Time.” Also in attendance at the black-tie gala event were DKMS founder Peter Harf, Coco Rocha, Georgia May Jagger, Olivia Culpo, Paris Hilton, Victoria Silvstedt, John Varvatos, Chazz Palminteri, Magdelena Frackowiak, Alina Baikova, Alicia Quarles, Ryan Searhant, Alina Baikova and others. For co-founder Katharina Harf, the battle against blood cancer is personal. At 14 years old, she lost her mother to blood cancer. Although the family searched valiantly for a matching donor, her mother’s life could not be saved. The Corporate Founding Sponsor was COTY Inc.

On Saturday, May 7, 2016, host Octavia Spencer and City Year AmeriCorps members and supporters including Justin Baldoni, Mischa Barton, Angela Bassett, Maria Bello, Rowan Blanchard, Sophia Bush, Jason Collins, Miranda Cosgrove, Adam Devine, Nina Dobrev, Colin Egglesfield, Max Greenfield, Derek Hough, Julianne Hough, Allison Janney, Michael B. Jordan, Keegan-Michael Key, Joey King, Lori Loughlin, Howie Mandel, Jennette McCurdy, Serayah McNeill, Aaron Paul, Nicola Peltz, Will Peltz, Aubrey Plaza, Yara Shahidi, Ian Ziering and special performers Imagine Dragons, to name a few gathered at Sony Studios, Commissary Lawn for City Year’s 6^th annual Spring Break-Destination: Education. It is their largest fundraising event as well as a big, fun party open to teens, tweens and adults. The event attracted a star-studded crowd with more than 1,400 attendees all together. There was a special performance by Imagine Dragons, as well as food, games and interactive booths sponsored by brands like Aramark, Disney/ABC Television Group, DreamWorks Animation, Hulu, NBC, PEOPLE, RealD, Twentieth Century Fox, and Univision, among many others. City Year is a national education-based nonprofit organization that helps high-need urban schools keep students in school and on track to graduate.