A reception was
held recently at H.O.M.E. (House of Music & Entertainment) in Beverly Hills
to announce On The Vine, a music, comedy, art and fashion event
benefiting breakthrough kidney disease research among African Americans that will take place at Martha's Vineyard this summer.
It was held to
highlight the kickoff of the fundraising effort which is designed to help prevent and combat kidney
disease among African Americans.
The event was
hosted by On the Vine Founder and Executive Producer Dennis Shortt who has partnered with the American Friends of Rambam to bring awareness and raise funds to
help eradicate kidney disease.
"The implications of this research are tremendous and its our privilege to be able to educate people on this," said Michele Segelnick, executive director of the American Friends of Rambam
(www.aforam.org).
The night's entertainment featured Grammy Award winners The Tony Rich Project and Universal Records, Israeli-born violinist Miri Ben-Ari. Lending their support of the event were actress Melinda Williams and singer Howard Hewitt.
MICHELE SEGELNICK
"The implications of this research are tremendous and its our privilege to be able to educate people on this," said Michele Segelnick, executive director of the American Friends of Rambam
(www.aforam.org).
The night's entertainment featured Grammy Award winners The Tony Rich Project and Universal Records, Israeli-born violinist Miri Ben-Ari. Lending their support of the event were actress Melinda Williams and singer Howard Hewitt.
A four-day music and entertainment fundraising festival
to benefit kidney disease research will be hosted by The American Friends of
Rambam and is set to take place Aug. 22-25 on Martha’s Vineyard. It will also
honor kidney disease survivor Natalie Cole.
The entertainment lineup for that event includes Kenny "BabyFace" Edmonds,
jazz greats Kahil El Zabar, Roy Hardgrove and James Carter, Smokey Robinson, comedian and kidney disease survivor Richard Lewis, violinist Miri Ben-Ari, singer- songwriter Angie Stone and others.
MIRI BEN-ARI
On The Vine will be an annual event benefiting the Rambam Health Care Campus
located in Haifa, Israel and will help fund the breakthrough kidney disease
research of Professor Karl Skorecki.
According to
reports, the world is approximately five years and $4 million away from the
prevention of kidney disease among African Americans.
Statistics
show that about 40 million Americans have kidney disease, of whom almost 12
million are Black. African
Americans are more than three times more likely to suffer from kidney disease.
While African Americans account for only 14% of the population, they make up
30% of all patients treated for kidney failure. Of the 580,000 Americans on
dialysis due to kidney failure, African Americans constitute 187,000 nearly a
third. African American patients
often wait up to 10 years before getting a match for a transplant because there
are fewer potential donors for Black people.
Breakthrough
medical research led by Dr. Karl Skorecki and his team based at Rambam Hospital
in Israel, has isolated genetic markers that are linked to contracting kidney
disease, as the first step to prevention and cure.
HOWARD HEWITT
MELINDA WILLIAMS
The American
Friends of Rambam is a non-profit foundation that manages the fundraising and
communication
efforts for Rambam Hospital. A
major fundraising effort is underway to secure these funds in order to get rid
of this debilitating disease. It's been estimated that if every African American family with a kidney
disease patient donated $1 to this research, the disease could be eradicated.
Donations can be made on the following website: www.aforam.org or via mail, payable to American Friends of Rambam Medical Center to Lea
Bernstein, AFORAM, 521 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1731, New York, NY 10175.
For more
information, go to www.onthevineevents.com.
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