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GM Foundation Donates $400,000 to Cancer Research

DETROIT --  The General Motors Foundation donated $400,000 for the second straight year to support cancer research at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute. This ruit highly specialized cancer researchers, celebrates Karmanos' 31st Annual Dinner and brings the combined contribution from the GM Foundation and General Motors to nearly $6.4 million over the last 16 years.

In addition, Mark Reuss, president, General Motors North America, and his wife Kim, will serve as chairs for Karmanos' Annual Dinner this year. The event will be held Saturday evening, April 20. This is the third consecutive year that GM's top leadership has chaired this signature event, beginning with GM Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson and his wife Karin in 2011; followed by GM Senior Vice President of Global Product Development Mary Barra and her husband Tony in 2012.

Health and human services is one of four key focus areas for the foundation.

"The GM Foundation is pleased to support Karmanos' outstanding work to help end cancer," said Vivian Pickard, president of the GM Foundation. "Not only is Karmanos' state-of-the-science cancer research and cancer care known locally and nationally, its reputation extends across the globe. We're happy to support Karmanos' Annual Dinner but more importantly, its continued fight to eradicate this disease."  

Chevrolet Motor Division is the Host Sponsor of this year's Annual Dinner. This year's exciting event will be held at the General Motors' Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center located at 2500 East Grand Blvd., in Detroit. Proceeds will benefit Karmanos' new Clinical Core Laboratory which will allow Karmanos to operate its own laboratory services to enhance efficiencies and patient care.

"We are delighted to have Kim and Mark Reuss chair this year's event, continuing the unprecedented commitment of GM and the GM Foundation," said Gerold Bepler, M.D., president and chief executive officer, Karmanos Cancer Institute. "We're fortunate to have such incredible community partners. Thanks to the support of the GM family and all our generous sponsors, Karmanos continues its outstanding research and quality care our patients and their families have come to know and expect, offering better treatments and better outcomes."

In addition to Chevrolet Motor Division, other key sponsors include: executive sponsors, Compuware Corp., Johnson Controls, Lil and Alex Erdeljan and Quicken Loans; entertainment sponsor, Credit Union One; dinner sponsors, AVL Americas, Becker Ventures, Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, Kenwal Steel Corp., Elizabeth and Michael Kojaian, Lear Corporation, Leo Burnett & Digitas, The Delphi Foundation, The Suburban Collection and UAW-GM Center for Human Resources.

Companies interested in sponsorship opportunities for the dinner should contact Maureen Bender at 313-576-8111 or benderm@karmanos.org. To reserve tickets, please contact Lisa Koltunchik at 313-576-8106 or koltuncl@karmanos.org. You may also visit http://www.karmanos.org/annualdinner.

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