Proceeds of $105,000 from the Evening of Hope, a fund raiser held in Milwaukee earlier this year, will support the ALS research of Clive Svendsen, Ph.D., a UW-Madison professor of neurology and anatomy and an investigator in the Waisman Center’s Molecular and Genetic Sciences Unit. Svendsen’s lab is pursuing multiple scientific tracks involving stem cells and their potential for repairing or replacing damaged cells in neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS.
The Evening of Hope, in its eleventh year, is sponsored by Response ALS, a group that was put together by Jeff Kaufman to raise money specifically for research of neurodegenerative diseases. His efforts, along with those of his wife Jan, who live in Brookfield, have established the Evening of Hope as one of Milwaukee’s most inspired and incomparable charitable endeavors. Jeff was diagnosed with ALS in 1989. A partner in the law firm of Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin and Brown at the time of his diagnosis, Jeff has garnered support for the ALS cause from his colleagues, family, and friends, as well as Milwaukee’s legal and corporate community.
This year’s Evening of Hope was held at the Hyatt Regency on February 21 and attended by hundreds of guests, including Waisman Center director Marsha Mailick Seltzer, Clive Svendsen, and UW Foundation representative David Weerts. According to Seltzer, the event more than lived up to its name. “It was extraordinarily moving to see the outpouring of love and affection for Jeff and Jan, as well as the generosity towards our stem cell research program,” says Seltzer. “We will be forever appreciative.”