'Mad Men' Actor Jon Hamm Serves As Emcee To Raise Funds For Charlotte And Gwenyth Gray Foundation
“Mad Men” actor Jon Hamm recently served as an emcee at a fundraiser. He was helping raise funds for a trial to find cure for a rare, incurable disease.
Hamm’s “Million Dollar Arm” producer Gordon Gray and his wife Kristen learned in March that their daughters Charlotte, 4, and Gwenyth, 20-months-old, have Batten disease, a rare fatal degenerative brain disorder, according to Deadline.com. Gray was told that there has been limited research on the disease. According to the report, Charlotte and Gwenyth are going to lose their sight, motor skills and the ability to feed themselves because of this disease. The report stated that most children with Late Infantile NCL Batten Disease CLN6 die between the ages of 6 and 12.
With the help of their Hollywood friends, Gray and his wife set up the The Charlotte And Gwenyth Gray Foundation, with the aim to raise USD 10 million to USD 12 million to fund urgent medical research, hoping to find a cure for the disease.
Deadline reported that the foundation is using Facebook to raise the fund. In addition to Hamm, celebrities such as Rihanna, Dwayne Johnson, Megan Fox, Mark Wahlberg, Channing Tatum, Jenna Dewan Tatum, Seth MacFarlane, Jennifer Garner, Jessica Alba, Eva Longoria, Jessica Biel, Ali Larter, Darius Rucker, Juanes, Norman Reedus, Julianne Hough and more have already made fundraising appeal on their Facebook pages. Each celebrity is asking his or her followers to donate $1 for the trial. The same appeal has been posted on the Instagram and Twitter feeds as well.
Hamm served as emcee for $250 per head fundraiser on Thursday, June 25. According to Deadline, Meghan Trainor performed at the event while there was a silent auction of memorabilia. Pete Hammond of Deadline said that Hamm learned about Charlotte and Gwenyth’s diagnosis from Gray’s former partner Mark Ciardi on the set of “Keeping Up With The Joneses.” When the actor asked the experts about the disease, he realised that no one knew about it. Deadline quoted him as saying, “They replied nothing,” adding, “That is why time is of the essence to come up with enough money to finance the research for a cure.”
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