Washingtonians Continue to Honor the Promise

Bob Schieffer by Tony Powell

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month (you’ll soon see pink EVERYwhere) but Friday evening, Susan G. Komen for the Cure got a head start by paying tribute to leaders in the fight against breast cancer at its third annual “Honoring the Promise” gala at the Kennedy Center. The star-studded event raised $1.5 million for Susan G. Komen’s breast cancer programs globally and in the nation’s capital, the city with one of the highest mortality rates from breast cancer in the country.  Honoring the Promise celebrates those who have helped to fulfill the promise set in motion 30 years ago when Susan G. Komen Founder Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan Komen, that she would do everything in her power to end the disease that claimed Susan’s life. Brinker founded Komen in 1982 in her sister’s memory.

Nancy Brinker by Margot Shulman

Co-survivor and longtime CBS correspondent Bob Schieffer, moderator of CBS’ “Face the Nation,” emceed the evening’s program, which featured performances by singer Jordin Sparks, the former “American Idol” winner. Sister group The Sledge Grits Band also performed.

Hollywood stars and breast cancer survivors Jaclyn Smith and Richard Roundtree joined country star Naomi Judd, former first daughter Susan Ford Bales, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Representative John Dingell to present the evening’s Awards of Distinction in four categories.

Sen. Olympia Snowe accepted the Betty Ford Lifetime Achievement for her outstanding leadership in the Senate Cancer Coalition.

Honorees for the Awards of Distinction were: For Scientific and Medical – Umberto Veronesi, M.D., accepted by Dr. V. Craig Jordan, For Community – Maggie Daley, accepted by her husband, Richard Daley, former mayor of Chicago, and Global Leadership – Her Excellency Dr. Christine Kaseba, first lady of Zambia.

Jordin Sparks and Jaclyn Smith by Tony Powell

Kennedy Center Chairman David Rubenstein served as founding chair for the event. The night was chaired by PhRMA CEO John Castellani and his wife Terry, alongside honorary chairs the Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates and Mrs. Abeer Al Otaiba, Ambassador of the State of Kuwait and Mrs. Salem Al-Sabah, Senator Scott Brown and Gail Huff, Representative John Dingell, the Honorable and Mrs. John Engler and Senator Joseph Lieberman. The evening gala was co-chaired by Jane and Spencer Abraham, Howard Bernick, William and Stuart Bernstein, Deborah Dingell, Hadassah Lieberman, Marlene and Fred Malek, Ginger and Stuart Pape, Anne and John Raffaelli, Vanessa Reed, Vicki and Roger Sant, Linda and Acie Vickers.