Washington Shakes Booty For Kidney Patients; 31st Annual Kidney Ball Raises ~$1 Million!

NORTHWEST -- Close to one thousand Washingtonians ‘got down’ Saturday night for the 31st Annual Kidney Ball hosted by the National Kidney Foundation, at the Washington Hilton hotel.

With the legendary disco and funk group KC & the Sunshine Band serving as the event’s featured entertainment, the crowded black tie affair had no trouble attracting a who’s who of the city’s business, government, health, and community leaders, including DC Mayor Vincent Gray, Her Excellency Audrey Marks, Ambassador of Jamaica to the United States, Washington Nationals Hitting Coach Rick Eckstein (who donated a kidney to his brother in 2010), opera singer Denyce Graves and her husband Robert Montgomery, Chief Transplant Surgeon at Johns Hopkins, and WUSA 9 anchors Anita Brikman and Andrea Roane, among many others.

Saturday’s ball attendees enjoyed an elegant evening of cocktails, dinner, both silent and live auctions, and dancing – all in addition to the live concert. Congressional Bank Chairman Stuart Marshall Bloch received this year’s Outstanding Achievement Award, for participating in a record-breaking kidney exchange in the fall of 2009 involving 26 patients (13 donors and 13 recipients), at Georgetown University Hospital and the Washington Hospital Center.

With the unfortunate distinction of being the country’s leading metropolitan area afflicted by kidney disease, the close to $1 million raised during the 2011 Kidney Ball will quickly be put to work for District residents to fund medical research, patient and community services, professional education, and spread organ donation awareness across the region.

Never let it be said that Washington has a problem shaking its booty for a great cause!