Jamie Foxx, Eric Dane and more raise $2.5 Million for Down syndrome research

Tony Bowles
Nov 5 · 2 min read

On Saturday, November 2, Global Down Syndrome Foundation (Global) raised a record breaking $2.5 million at their Beautiful Be Yourself Fashion Show, held at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel. The star-studded event, now in its 11th year, included was attended by A-List celebrities like Jamie Foxx, Amanda Booth, Henry Winkler, Laura Linney, Eric Dane, Quincy Jones and John C. McGinley.

After 22 brilliant models who happen to have Down syndrome rocked the runway, Quincy Jones himself helped present the Quincy Jones Exceptional Advocacy Awards (Q-Award) to supermodel Amanda Booth, who is also a mother to Micah who happens to have Down syndrome, and TV star and entrepreneur Megan Bomgaars.

As the largest fundraiser for Down syndrome in the world, the BBBY fashion show has now raised a cumulative $20 million. Proceeds from the event help underwrite life-changing and life-saving research and medical care at Global’s affiliates — the Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome and Rocky Mountain Alzheimer’s Disease Center.

Global was honored to have Quincy Jones in person to help present his namesake awards, the Quincy Jones Exceptional Advocacy Awards (Q-Award), to supermodel Amanda Booth and TV star and entrepreneur Megan Bomgaars. Booth, who is also a mother to Micah who happens to have Down syndrome, said “How fortunate am I to have been given such an incredible platform to have my thoughts be heard, and to have my work be validated and recognized. That’s really all I am hoping for, by showing up with my son and demanding that he be on the covers of magazines, and star in commercials. If Down syndrome is recognizable, then it will be familiar, and when something is familiar it is welcome.”

Global President and CEO Michelle Sie Whitten and her husband Tom Whitten proudly served as the 2019 Be Beautiful Be Yourself Fashion Show chairs. Past event chairs include Kacey Bingham and Brittany Bowlen, Peter Kudla, Anna and John J. Sie, Sharon Magness Blake and Ernie Blake, Ricki Rest, and Nancy Sevo. Other notables in attendance included past Global Ambassadors Chase Turner Perry, Sophia Kay Whitten, Louis Rotella IV, Markus Sikora, and Clarissa Capuano; and past Q-Award winner Tim Harris.

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Anthony Bowles is one of the youngest sought out journalists in the media world. He has had the privilege of interviewing today’s most well-known celebrities.

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