The 8th Annual “Hope on the Hill” Congressional Dinner was held on Tuesday, November 27, 2018 at The Willard Hotel in Washington, DC. More than 170 people from the SMA community – including government and industry partners – attended the dinner which raised $200,000 to fund advocacy efforts, research, and family support services. Since 2011, the “Hope on the Hill” Congressional Dinner has raised over $1.2M for Cure SMA.
The evening included remarks from event co-chairs, Greg and Shannon Zerzan, Cure SMA President, Kenneth Hobby, and from keynote speaker, Walter Robb, Principal, Stonewall Robb Advisors & former Co-CEO of Whole Foods Market. Walter spoke about his personal connection to SMA and about his hope for the future.
We were pleased to have Congressman Kevin Yoder from Kansas and Senator Debbie Stabenow from Michigan join us for the event. Senator Stabenow has long been an advocate for the rare disease community. She supported legislation to create new innovative research opportunities at the National Institutes of Health, and to increase access to clinical trials.
Cure SMA remains focused on educating and engaging all groups in our community: families affected by SMA, governmental and regulatory groups, insurance and payers, and the biotech and pharmaceutical companies that are developing and testing SMA drugs. It is more important now than ever to make certain that regulators, payers, and industry partners understand the impact of SMA.
Thank You
Special thanks to the sponsors who have made this event possible:
Discovery Sponsors
New Direction Sponsor
To see a complete list of sponsors, please visit the 8th Annual Hope on the Hill website.