Charity Spotlight: PANDA aims to end childhood diseases
The Organization:
PANDA: People Acting Now Discover Answers, or the Phoenix Women’s Board of the Steele Children’s Research Center at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.
The Cause:
PANDA “supports discovery processes to improve treatments and cures for devastating childhood diseases. The strong and unique partnership between the PANDA members and the researchers and physicians at the Steele Center has made it possible for us to embody our name, People Acting Now Discovering Answers.”
The Story:
PANDA started in the early 1980s in Tucson, when a friend of PANDA co-founder Robyn DeBell by the name of Louise Thomas had a son named Michael diagnosed with leukemia. Michael unfortunately passed away despite receiving the best medical care available at the time. Thomas vowed in her grief to start a facility that would find the causes and cures for childhood diseases like the leukemia that took her son — and that would become the Steele Children’s Research Center.
Fast forward a few years — DeBell moved to Phoenix and met PANDA co-founder Penny Gunning, who made it their mission to expand the Steele Children’s Research Center to Phoenix. DeBell and Gunning started a children’s fashion show to raise money for the center, and started a group of 35 women dedicated to the cause.
Since then, the group that became PANDA has raised more than $7.25 million for the Steele Center to aid in its research and treatment.
“Our goal is to end devastating childhood diseases,” said Jennifer Karas, President of PANDA. “We work with the team down at the Steele Center and fundraise for them to help make sure the doctors have the resources they need. That’s the incredible thing — the return on investment our donors receive and our community receives. We’re not just looking at cancer, we’re looking at how we are going to solve cancer.”
The Event:
PANDA’s 2017 “Children Helping Children” Fashion Show will take place on March 25 at The Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale. This year’s event will raise funds specifically for the Children’s Autoimmunity and Allergies Project, which seeks to help unravel the mystery of common autoimmune issues among children – including type 1 diabetes, juvenile arthritis, Crohn’s disease, colitis, eosinophilic esophagitis, celiac disease and postinfectious autoimmune encephalopathy.
The event is sold out — more than 1,000 people will be in attendance, and Karas said it’s the fastest the event has ever sold out. However, raffle tickets and online bidding for the silent auction will be available to everyone. For more details, visit PANDA’s web site.
The Chairs:
Janey Henze Cook and Tammy Ryan
The Quote:
“It’s incredible, so uplifting, and our goal is that everyone leaves with a sense of hope for the future of these kids and for medical research,” Karas said. “Children from throughout the Valley participate in the fashion show, and this year Vans has given children shoes so they can make their own designs. The children go through the summer doing lemonade stands to raise money for the event, and we have an ice cream social for them during the summer so we can really show them how they are the ones who are creating the event.”
For More Information:
Visit www.azpanda.org or e-mail pandareservations2017@gmail.com.
