On Friday, May 10, Multiple Sclerosis (MS) advocate and Center Without Walls founder Nancy Davis welcomed guests to the Fairmont Century Plaza for the 31st Annual Race to Erase MS Gala.
The event raised over $1.5 million to benefit the Race to Erase MS and its Center Without Walls program, a collaboration of top MS research centers working together as a team on ground-breaking research with the goal of treating and, ultimately, finding a cure for MS. The star-studded event, hosted by Caroline Rhea, featured performances by Natasha Bedingfield and A Great Big World. Additionally, L’AGENCE kicked off the evening with a fashion show.
Guests at this year’s landmark event included Race to Erase MS Founder Nancy Davis, host Caroline Rhea, performers Natasha Bedingfield and A Great Big World, L’AGENCE Founder and Chairman Jeff Rudes, Fashion Director Tara Rudes-Dann, and other special guests including Alan Bersten, Amanda Kloots, AnnaLynne McCord, Ashley Benson, Bershan Shaw, Bijou Phillips, Brandon Davis, Carmen Electra, Casey Affleck, Christine Chiu, Christine Devine, David Arquette, David Faustino, Derek Warburton, Diane Warren, Emma Slater, Fernando Vargas Jr., Francesca Capaldi, Gigi Gorgeous, Harry Jowsey, Heather & Terry Dubrow, Ioan Gruffud, Jason Wahler, Jessica Lowndes, Joel Michaely, Joely Fisher, Jonathan Cheban, Kathy & Rick Hilton, Katie Cassidy, Lauren Gibson, Lauren Kettering, Lorenzo Antonucci, Montana Tucker, Natasha Graziano, Olivia Sanabia, Rachel Lindsay, Scheana Shay, Shaun Robinson, Sutton Stracke, Tia Carrere, Torrei Hart, and more!
Nancy Davis wore a stunning sequin L’AGENCE dress and coat for the event, while other notable guests including Amanda Kloots, Kathy Hilton, Heather Dubrow, AnnaLynne McCord, and Bijou Phillips also donned various silhouettes from the popular contemporary brand. From Monday, April 29th through Sunday, May 12th, L’AGENCE will donate 20% of profits from sales from its Los Angeles store locations – Beverly Hills and Malibu – to the Race to Erase MS. Following the event on Saturday, May 11th, L’AGENCE will also donate 20% of profits from LAGENCE.com to the organization.
“We are honored to be the fashion sponsor for this year’s gala,” said L’AGENCE Founder and Chairman Jeff Rudes. “Nancy Davis’ story moved us to where we had to get immediately involved.”
Race to Erase MS founder Nancy Davis took the stage, thanking guests for being in the room to celebrate the 31st Annual Gala. Davis shared, “Tonight, we are here to celebrate the fact that we are one giant leap forward in reaching our ultimate goal of crossing the finish line and finding a cure for MS.” Davis added, “Thank you to every hero in this room.”
Amanda Kloots introduced musical guest A Great Big World who brought down the house playing hits “Say Something” and “This Is the New Year.” Natasha Bedingfield then followed later in the evening with another show-stopping performance, introduced by Casey Affleck, featuring songs “Love Like This,” “Pocketful of Sunshine,” “These Words,” and “Unwritten.”
The event also hosted a luxurious live auction, which featured one-of-a-kind opportunities including a VIP dining experience for eight at Steak 48 in Beverly Hills; a pre-Oscar celebrity experience for a day; a four-night stay at the fabulous Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea with First Class airfare on Alaska Airlines; incredible tickets for Taylor Swift’s sold out The Eras Tour concert in Miami plus a three-night stay at Loews Miami Beach Hotel; a seven-night stay in an ultra-exclusive four-bedroom tranquility villa at Amanyara, Turks & Caicos; a two-day Parisian culinary adventure for two with Recipe.TV Emmy-nominated chef Edward Delling-Williams and special guest chef Florian V. Hugo; and a luxurious flight for two on Aero Airlines with a three night’s stay at the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal and more. The big item of the night was a four-night private yacht charter with a crew and a gourmet chef in Nassau, Bahamas, which went to the highest bidder for $50,000.
As in years past, an uplifting rendition of “Lean On Me” was performed as the finale of the evening by Natasha Bedingfield. They invited audience members to join them onstage to close out the special evening.
Race to Erase MS was founded in 1993 by Nancy Davis and is dedicated to the treatment and ultimate cure of Multiple Sclerosis. Since the Race to Erase MS foundation was created, there has been more than $59.5 million raised and 24 FDA approved therapies created to aggressively fight MS that have provided hope, inspiration, and resources to those in the Multiple Sclerosis community. The gala directly benefits the foundation’s Center Without Walls program, a unique collaboration between the world’s leading MS research scientists and investigators who have bolstered their individual efforts into collective action that has led to exciting discoveries in the search for a cure.
The Center Without Walls program currently includes physicians, scientists, and clinicians from Cedars-Sinai, UCSF, Harvard, Yale, Oregon Health Science University, Johns Hopkins, UCLA and USC. The Race to Erase MS Gala has been instrumental in funding pilot studies that have contributed to drugs now on the market and other very important therapies that are improving the lives of people worldwide suffering from MS.
Davis also created the annual “Orange You Happy to Erase MS” campaign, which takes place for the entire month of May (MS Awareness Month) and adds yet another branch of fundraising for MS research. Throughout the month, a variety of orange products, many of which are specially created for this initiative, are sold to benefit the cause and elevate public awareness about MS.
