Bob Saget will host Cool Comedy – Hot Cuisine, the Scleroderma Research Foundation's (SRF) signature benefit, Monday, November 7 at Carolines on Broadway.
Saget, an SRF Board Member who lost his sister to scleroderma, will be joined in the fundraising effort by comedians Seth Meyers (Saturday Night Live), Colin Quinn (Saturday Night Live) and Jeffrey Ross (New York Friar’s Club ‘Roastmaster General’).
Presented by Actelion Pharmaceuticals, Cool Comedy – Hot Cuisine benefits America’s leading nonprofit investor in research to find improved therapies and a cure for people living with scleroderma, a disease of the connective tissues that literally means “hard skin,” but often affects the internal organs with life-threatening consequences.
Symptoms and severity of scleroderma vary greatly and the course of the disease is often unpredictable. Women between the ages of 20 and 50 represent 80% of patients; however, children and men of all ages are also affected.
The “Hot Cuisine” will be provided by Bravo Top Chef Masters and restaurateurs Susan Feniger (an SRF Board Member) and Mary Sue Milliken (Food Network’s Too Hot Tamales) featuring dishes from their acclaimed restaurant, Border Grill.
“All the money raised goes directly to research,” says Saget. “We try to make the event different from a typical charity fundraiser. It’s an evening filled with fun, great food and laughter.”
Cool Comedy – Hot Cuisine events held in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco have raised considerable awareness for scleroderma and enabled the SRF to press forward with research aimed at helping patients live longer, fuller lives. Founded by patient Sharon Monsky in 1987, the SRF has raised more than $30,000,000 to fund research at Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Stanford and other universities.
“The Foundation’s collaborative approach is enabling scientists from leading institutions across the nation and abroad to work together and develop an understanding of how scleroderma begins, progresses and what can be done to slow, halt or reverse the disease process,” explains Luke Evnin, Ph.D., SRF Board Chair and Managing Partner of MPM Capital, one of the world’s largest investors in life sciences.
Cool Comedy – Hot Cuisine will include a live auction featuring the opportunity to be part of two of fashion’s premier events, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show and Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen’s The Row Fashion Show as well as set visits of some of Hollywood’s most popular television shows, including Two and a Half Men, X-Factor and Mike & Molly. Travel packages, including a trip to Super Bowl XLVI and a week in Grand Cayman provided by Exclusive Resorts, are accompanied by first-class airfare provided by sponsor Delta Private Jets.
Tickets are $500 with tables of 10 available at $10,000 and $25,000. Tables of six are available for $5,000. All contributions benefit the Scleroderma Research Foundation. For more information, call (800) 441-CURE or visit www.sclerodermaRESEARCH.org.
