DENVER, Colo. (Aug 9th, 2015) – Entertainment icon and eight time Grammy Award winner, Usher, set to perform as headliner at the 2015 Carousel Ball, Friday, October 2, benefiting the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes. The event, hosted by the Children’s Diabetes Foundation (CDF), will be held at the Hyatt Regency at the Colorado Convention Center.
Usher is ranked by Recording Industry Assn. of America as one of the best selling artists in American music history, having sold over 65 million albums worldwide in the twenty years of his career. He has won 8 Grammy Awards, Billboard named him the second most successful artist of the 2000s decade and he has attained nine Hot 100 #1 hits and 18 Hot 100 top-10 singles.
Usher has proven to be a major philanthropic force and honored by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the Trumpet Foundation, Do Something, the NAACP and 2010 Ford Freedom Award Scholar.
David Foster, Emcee and Musical Director of the event, is one of the most successful record producers in history – winning 16 Grammy Awards, including three for Producer of the Year, an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe and three Oscar nominations for “Best Original Song.” In June 2010, he was inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame earning a reputation as a keen spotter of new talent, playing a key role in discovery and career launches of Celine Dion, Josh Groban and Michael Bublé.
The Children’s Diabetes Foundation (CDF) will honor John and Paige Elway, with the High Hopes Tribute Award, for their extraordinary service to the Colorado community. This event will benefit the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes (BDC).
The honorary chairwoman is Barbara Davis, who is assisted by honorary co-chairs: Nancy Davis Rickel and Ken Rickel, Congresswoman Diana DeGette and Lino Lipinsky de Orlov, Senator Cory Gardner and Jaime Gardner, Mayor Michael B. Hancock, Governor John W. Hickenlooper and A. Barry and Arlene Hirschfeld. This year’s event chairmen are Dana Davis and Shane Hendryson.
Tina and Rick Caruso- The Grove, CBS, HBO, Viacom and Paramount Pictures will sponsor the event, among others.
The Carousel Ball continues the long-awaited Denver tradition which funds programs for clinical care and research for thousands of children and adults at the BDC. As one of the leading centers for diabetes in the world, the BDC provides clinical care and research in the crucial effort to find a cure for the life-threatening disease. Currently, more than 30 million people have diabetes and one in three babies born today will have diabetes in their lifetime.
Proceeds from the Carousel Ball, which includes silent and live auctions, benefit BDC (www.childrensdiabetesfoundation.org) programs. At the BDC, 75 percent of the center’s patients come from the Rocky Mountain region and no one with diabetes is ever turned away.
About the Children’s Diabetes Foundation: Over $80 million raised to date
The Children’s Diabetes Foundation was established by Barbara Davis and her late husband Marvin Davis in 1977 in Denver, Colorado, where they held the first Carousel Ball shortly after learning that their seven year-old daughter, Dana, had Type 1 diabetes. Dana Davis is CDF’s Interim Executive Director.
Facebook: @ChildrensDiabetesFoundation; Twitter: @Chldrnsdiabetes; Instagram: cdf_cares
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