ECAN's Charm City Celebrity Game Night Set for Apr. 9 at Baltimore Marriott Waterfront

BALTIMORE – With help from local broadcast celebrities, ECAN (Esophageal Cancer Action Network) will fight to take Esophageal Cancer “down to the buzzer” during Charm City Celebrity Game Night, Saturday, Apr. 9, at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel (700 Aliceanna St., 21202).

Organizers expect 400 guests for this festive casual evening of live game shows among Baltimore TV and radio personalities competing for the Jerry Turner Trophy. A beloved and highly regarded Baltimore news anchor for more than 25 years, Turner passed away from Esophageal Cancer in 1987 when he was just 57. Turner’s son, Mac Joiner, and his wife, Angie, serve on the Charm City Celebrity Game Night committee and Turner’s family will join in the festivities.

“We are planning a heartfelt but hilariously quizzical evening in tribute Jerry Turner with the hope that we can shine the light on this deadly disease and save some lives,” said ECAN President and CEO Mindy Mintz Mordecai, a former TV and radio broadcaster herself who founded the national non-profit organization after losing her husband and the father of their two young daughters to Esophageal Cancer in 2008.

WJZ-TV’s Denise Koch, who shared the anchor desk with Turner, is the honorary chair of Charm City Celebrity Game Night. Emmy-Winning Actor and Writer David DeBoy will serve as emcee. Longtime ECAN supporters, Lois and Ken Stern (owners of Maryland Productions) are the event chairs.

Festivities kick off at 7 p.m. with a VIP reception where guests can mingle with the celebrity contestants while sampling cocktails and hors d'oeuvres and watching the sun set over the Inner Harbor.

The main event will take place from 8 to 11 p.m., with guests serving as the live studio audience for a Baltimore version of Hollywood Game Night. Each broadcast team will be complemented by an additional team member who won their coveted spot in an online auction. For details on how to bid, visit www.ECAN.org.

Adding to the fun, guests can enjoy the Marriott Waterfront’s creative twist on the kind of food and drinks we might crave while watching TV at home. They also can bid in the live auction on rare opportunities and experiences including:

-VIP tickets to a Wheel of Fortune taping in LA,
-exclusive, private tour of the West Wing for 4,
-party for 12 in the Presidential Bowling Alley,
-Orioles Game Day experience with Mark Viviano and
-Pimlico’s Black Eyed Susan Day VIP experience with Denise Koch.

Event proceeds will raise awareness and critically needed funds to combat Esophageal Cancer, which takes the life of one American every 36 minutes.

Diagnoses are up more than 600 percent in the past 35 years and the type of Esophageal Cancer increasing so rapidly in the United States is usually caused by reflux disease – which can cause heartburn and many other common symptoms like persistent coughing, hoarseness or sore throat.

Tickets are $200/person for admission to the main event and VIP reception and $125/person for the main event alone. Corporate sponsorships are available. For tickets, sponsorships or more information, visit www.charmcitycelebritygamenight.org or call 410.358.ECAN (3226).

ABOUT ECAN
ECAN’s mission is to save lives by increasing awareness of the link between reflux disease and cancer, promoting early detection and supporting medical innovation to prevent, detect, treat and cure Esophageal Cancer. The Baltimore-based national non-profit organization is led by a board of directors of top physicians, business leaders and families that have been touched by the disease.

Through ECAN’s efforts, April has been formally designated as Esophageal Cancer Awareness Month across the United States. ECAN also published an innovative Guide for Patients with input from leading doctors across the nation, and it successfully advocated with the National Cancer Institute to include Esophageal Cancer in its groundbreaking genome mapping project known as The Cancer Genome Atlas. For more information, visit www.ECAN.org.