RSN’s 7th Annual Renal Teen Prom Memories “Music Music Music”

7th Annual Renal Teen Prom

RSN Invites Young Patients Throughout America to This Year’s Renal Teen Prom

For the seventh consecutive year, the Renal Support Network will be hosting a special prom for teenagers and young adults, ages 14 to 21, with kidney disease. As in previous years, the Renal Teen Prom–to be held January 15, 2006 in the Los Angeles area –will be co-hosted by student and alumni volunteers from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, Calif.

Set in the style of a senior prom, this free event draws more than 300 kidney teens, their guests, and volunteers from throughout Southern California. Last year’s gala attracted kidney teens from Arizona and Texas, and teens from Canada will be coming to this year’s event, a testament to the prom’s growing reputation and the lengths to which young patients will go to connect with others in their peer group.

With Music, Music, Music as the theme of the 2006 Renal Teen Prom, the prom goers will be treated to a night of dancing, dinner and hors doeuvres (renal-friendly), limousine rides, and glamour photo ops, and will soon discover that one friend can make a difference!

Stephen Furst as emcee, Lacey Heward as special guest!

This year’s emcee will be TV and movie actor/director/producer Stephen Furst–himself a kidney patient–who has starred in TV shows such as St. Elsewhere and Babylon 5, and in movies such as Animal House (in which he played Flounder), The Dream Team, Midnight Madness, and Sorority Boys.

Among the special guests at this year’s prom will be Lacey Heward, a 25-year-old kidney patient who–despite having lost the use of her legs as a toddler–has become a world-class skier. She takes part in the sport of mono-skiing, in which elite disabled athletes race giant-slalom and downhill courses on a single ski attached to an aerodynamic seat. Lacey, the defending World Cup mono-ski champion, will retire from the sport following the 2006 Paralympic Winter Games in Italy to refocus on her dream of becoming an influential singer/songwriter. At the closing ceremonies of the 2002 Paralympic Winter Games, Lacey sang alongside the renowned vocalist Patty LaBelle and has agreed to sing for the kidney teens at this year’s prom, sharing her story of hope.

Generous donations of gowns will allow every young woman to look elegant, and appearances by Hollywood celebrities will ensure a night to remember. Major celebrities who have graced the prom in the past include Kirsten Dunst, Sinbad, Alexa Vega, Mark Harmon, Pam Dawber, Gary Sinise, and Michael Welch. Due to this celebrity presence, the prom has become one of California’s most inspirational news stories, and live broadcasts from the prom appear throughout the night on Los Angeles-area newscasts. A special on the prom was featured on Lifetime Television, and a young girl who attended the 2005 prom wrote about her experience in a recent issue of Teen Magazine.

This will be a night for young people with kidney disease to have what no young person should miss: the chance to enjoy being young!

Anyone knowing of a teenager or young adult with kidney disease, whether on dialysis or with a transplant, who would enjoy this unique experience should have them contact RSN for an invitation by emailing us, or by calling us at 818-543-0896.

As written by Plato, Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything. To help the RSN put Music, Music, Music into the lives of young kidney patients, tax-deductible contributions earmarked for the prom are welcomed and can be sent to the address shown above.

Find out more about RSN’s Renal Teen Prom

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