Press Releases
Business, Legal and Community leaders join to support Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute
KATHY MATTEA, MIKE MARTZ TO SPEAK AT JUNE 4 CHARLESTON GALA
May 07, 2004
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Two-time Grammy winner Kathy Mattea and St. Louis Rams Head Coach Mike Martz will speak with prominent business, legal and community leaders at a gala black-tie benefit for the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute June 4. U.S. Senator John D. Rockefeller IV will serve as host for the supporters of the research institute and their celebrity guests at the Charleston Civic Center.
"I am very proud of the work of the Institute and the fact that it's well on its way to becoming one of the nation's most prominent academic research institutions," Senator Rockefeller said. "This event will take the Institute and the state of West Virginia one giant step closer to being the world leader in the research of neurological diseases."
The Institute, headquartered on the campus of West Virginia University, is a nonprofit, multi-million dollar international medical research center focused on human memory and the development of new drugs and diagnostics to treat and diagnose neurological and cognitive disorders. It is the largest basic science research venture in West Virginia history, and the only major nonprofit Institute focusing on human memory in the world.
The June 4 event will mark the first major gala in support of the Institute that was founded in 1999. It is expected to become an annual event with funds being raised to support the remarkable progress of the Institute.
Mattea and her husband, Grammy-award songwriter Jon Vezner, will meet with guests at a pre-dinner reception, beginning at 6 p.m. The dinner and program begins at 7:30 p.m., and will feature remarks by Mattea and by Coach Martz, whose late mother, Betty, suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Individual contributions will be $1,000 per person to attend.
The dinner's major sponsors are John and Elaine Chambers; BellSouth; Mylan Charitable Foundation; Steptoe & Johnson PLLC; Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP; West Virginia
University and West Virginia University Hospitals. Other confirmed dinner sponsors, to date, include Aurora Flight Services; American Electric Power; the Arnold Agency; Bell & Bands PLLC; the Calwell Practice in memory of Iva Moody; the Caperton Group; Consol Energy; CSX Corporation; DiTrapano, Barrett & DiPiero PLLC; Dow Chemical Company; The Huntington National Bank; Jackson & Kelly PLLC; Kirkpatrick & Lockhart LLP; Marshall University; Martin & Seibert LC; Massey Energy Company; NGK Spark Plugs USA; United Bankshares; Verizon; and WesBanco.
The fund-raising committee is reaching out to other business and community leaders in West Virginia and across the nation who are interested in serving as sponsors of the Gala.
The Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute is named for Senator Rockefeller's mother. After battling Alzheimer's disease for nearly a decade, she succumbed to the disease in 1992.
For further information on sponsorship or tickets, please contact Dee O'Palko at (304) 293-4466.
More information about the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute is available at www.brni.org.