The 18th Annual PANDA “Children Helping Children” Fashion Show and Luncheon donated a record-breaking $1.725 million to support the PANDA Children’s Autoimmunity and Allergies Project at the University of Arizona Steele Children’s Research Center.
Net proceeds from the event were approximately $1.2 million, and the University of Arizona Foundation contributed an additional “match” of $525,000, totaling $1.725 million.
“This is truly inspiring and will enable us to advance our research examining the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to autoimmunity,” said Fayez K. Ghishan, MD,director of the UA Steele Center, and professor and head of the UA Department of Pediatrics. “We are profoundly grateful to the PANDAs.”
The PANDA (People Acting Now Discover Answers) Children’s Autoimmunity and Allergies Project will support research in type 1 diabetes, juvenile arthritis, Crohn’s disease, colitis, severe food allergies, eosinophilic esophagitis, celiac disease and children’spostinfectious autoimmune encephalopathy (CPAE).
“Our hope with the research funded by the PANDA Children’s Autoimmunity and Allergies Project is to better understand why some are more prone to these diseases, what in the environment triggers a disease response in some individuals, but not in others,” said Dr. Ghishan.
The event sold out a month in advance, with 1,100 individuals attending. It took place in Scottsdale at The Phoenician on March 25.
This year’s event chairs were Janey Henze Cook and Tammy Ryan. Jennifer Karas served as the PANDA board president.
The theme of event was “It’s a Small World” and it featured a children’s fashion show with 55 child models (including five “patient models”), live and silent auctions and a raffle.
Penny Gunning and Robyn DeBell founded the PANDAs in 1999. Since then, more than 150 Valley women have worked tirelessly to donate more than $9 million to improve treatments and cures for devastating childhood diseases and recruit world-class pediatric physicians and physician-scientists to Arizona to provide families the most cutting-edge medical care. To learn more, please visit: http://www.azpanda.org.
About the UA Steele Children’s Research Center
The UA Steele Children’s Research Center is one of the prestigious Centers of Excellence at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson at the University of Arizona Health Sciences. It is the state’s only academic pediatric research center designated by the Arizona Board of Regents, and the only facility in Southern Arizona where researchers and physician-scientists are dedicated to advancing medical knowledge through basic and translational research to improve children’s health. As researchers, they seek to discover answers to children’s medical mysteries. As physician-scientists, they provide compassionate care to hospitalized patients at Banner Children’s at Diamond Children’s Medical Center and pediatric outpatient clinics throughout Tucson and the state. And, as faculty members with the UA Department of Pediatrics, they teach and train the next generation of pediatricians and researchers.
About the University of Arizona Health Sciences
The University of Arizona Health Sciences is the statewide leader in biomedical research and health professions training. The UA Health Sciences includes the UA Colleges of Medicine (Phoenix and Tucson), Nursing, Pharmacy and Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, with main campus locations in Tucson and the growing Phoenix Biomedical Campus in downtown Phoenix. From these vantage points, the UA Health Sciences reaches across the state of Arizona and the greater Southwest to provide cutting-edge health education, research, patient care and community outreach services. A major economic engine, the UA Health Sciences employs almost 5,000 people, has nearly 1,000 faculty members and garners more than $126 million in research grants and contracts annually. For more information: http://uahs.arizona.edu