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MAMARONECK, N.Y. -- Karen Gardner inched a few hunded dollars closer to the $3,500 fundraising goal for the Accelerated Cure Project for multiple sclerosis (ACP) at Cafe Mozart Wednesday.
Including the $190 in donations Wednesday and those received through their website, the Pelham resident has now collected $3,411 overall. ACP will award the total to MS researchers in hopes of finding the cause of the autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system.
"Until they identify the cause, they can't target a medicine to cure it," said Gardner, associate director of internal and web communications at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University.
The owner of the Mamaroneck Ave. restaurant, Sadhir Dawn, agreed to set up another fundraiser on Aug. 3, just over one week before Gardner begins the six-day, 330-mile bike ride through the Canadian Rockies in conjunction with the fundraiser on Aug. 14.
"If we can put something together for early August, I definitely hope people come out and support a good cause," Gardner said. The bike ride, which includes 29 others, will begin in Banff, Alberta, Canada and end in Jasper, located in the same province, on August 21.
Gardner held a previous fundraiser at Lola's Tea House in Pelham June 2, where her Albert Einstein College of Medicine colleague, Peter Dama, played with his jazz-guitar trio, Triad. Dama, the medical college's creative director, also played with his band Wednesday at Cafe Mozart.
"We donate time to Karen's charity, as well as others," Dama said. Gardner hopes Triad will accompany her at the next fundraiser at Cafe Mozart. Band member Frank Lyons' father and neice have MS, which he said is a tough disease and hopes further research will result in a cure.
Gardner also had a family member with MS, her cousin Lois. "The few times I met her, she had such a love of life, and tenacity," she said. "Even though she died, she lived her life with dignity and love. It's the people who we do this for who are really inspiring. They don't always successfully persevere, but they try."
You can make a donation to Karen Gardner and MS research here.
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