LOS ANGELES—Close to 400 supporters, including community leaders, elected officials, and representatives of health organizations, joined together to celebrate the Sweet 16 of the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR). Match for Life, the 16th annual Gala of the registry, took place on the evening of August 23, at the Glendale Hilton, in Glendale, California.
In addition to functioning as a jubilant testament to the worldwide Armenian community’s support of ABMDR’s life-saving mission, the Gala served as an occasion to mark the registry’s latest accomplishments. These include ABMDR’s hosting of the prestigious EFI Educational Conference in Yerevan, for the second time since 2011; the recruitment of over 2,500 potential bone marrow donors in the past year; and the ongoing growth and medical advances of ABMDR’s Stem Cell Harvesting Center in Yerevan, through pioneering technologies and programs such as cord-blood banking. The Gala was made possible by the major sponsorship of Glendale Adventist Medical Center and the Histogenetics company.
Following a cocktail hour and silent auction in the foyer and terrace of the Hilton’s Glendale Ballroom, the evening’s main program began inside the hall, with welcoming remarks delivered in Armenian and English by Gala Committee co-chairs Salpi Mankerian and Amy Boyadjian, respectively. “This year has profound significance for our registry, as it marks the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,â€
